Drinks manufacturer Fruitapeel has turned to Linx Printing Technologies (linxglobal.com) for a new coding and marking solution on its busy production lines.

Fruitapeel, established four years ago in Llantrisant, manufactures quality juices, smoothies and fruit sauces for supermarket own labels, airlines and the wider retail and food service sectors under its own name.

The company’s previous printers were unreliable, suffering poor print quality and needing frequent readjustment and expensive maintenance. Fruitapeel was therefore looking for reliable coders that didn’t need regular attention and, having used Linx machines elsewhere before, was impressed by their reliability and ease of use

Fruitapeel chose the new Linx 5900 continuous ink jet printer for coding onto bottles of fruit juices and smoothies ranging in size from 250ml to 2L.

The PE caps are printed with a two-line message comprising a use by date and batch code. Each line is 3mm tall and printed with Linx Black 1240 ink, an ideal all round fast-drying ink.

The coding speed is up to 92 bottles/min although on average one bottle is coded every two seconds, eight hours a day, five days a week.

Rob Stillman, Engineering Manager for Fruitapeel, says: “We code a lot of products and the Linx 5900 has freed up our time to get on with other things – it doesn’t need any intervention other than adding fluids.                    

“Since installing the Linx 5900 in August we haven’t had any problems. Our operators like the printer because it is easy to use and we are able to leave them to it.”

The Linx 5900 also has the adaptability to be further upgraded as and when required, with a variety of enhancements available that can be incorporated at any time, avoiding the need to purchase a whole new printer and making the initial investment future-proof.

Designed to provide maximum flexibility and consistently reliable coding, it offers the lowest maintenance costs for this type of printer along with extended service intervals of up to 6,000 hours.

The Linx 5900 also provides a cost-effective and predictable maintenance programme. Service intervals are up to 6,000 hours and each service requires fewer parts to be changed than with other printers. Together with minimal printhead maintenance, this means that the Linx 5900 delivers lowest-in-class annual maintenance costs.