FTA Members Matthews International Corp, Bison Bag Company Inc Implement Product Identification & Tracking System

A Matthews L-Series cartridge printer with Automated Bulk Ink System (ABIS) mounted in one of six bag-making lines as Bison Bag Company Inc.
Photos courtesy of Matthews International Corp

Serialization is no longer just for the pharmaceutical industry. CPCs, especially those in the food manufacturing sector, are making it a requirement for their products. Lot numbers are printed directly onto the product as well as their shipping boxes, or marked via print-and-apply label applicators, for the requirement and necessity of packaging tracking and traceability.

Should a recall occur for any reason, CPCs can easily identify product based on lot numbers that have been shipped to market or potentially still reside in their current product inventory. Identified units then can be pulled off the shelf or out of inventory for quarantine.

The Identification Imperative

The need for identification of products and sub-products is on the rise. Consumer demands and government regulation are backing this trend.

“A growing need seen in our organization is the application of lot coding to the individual bag, carton or label,” according to Michael Orcutt, director of business development at Matthews Marking Systems. “We have seen this even in roll stock packaging applications.” Matthews has deployed equipment in all major print segments, including corrugated and commercial printing operations, for some aspect of identification.

FTA member Bison Bag Company Inc, a 50-year-old privately held company located in Lockport, NY, has seen the same trend in its business. “The need for serialization at Bison Bag came from one of our longtime customers, a large, worldwide food processor,” says company President Scott Zgoda.

Equipped with three central impression (CI) presses with up to 10-color capabilities, an additional 10-color press soon to be ordered and two solventless lamination lines serving a wide variety of flexible packaging needs, Bison Bag needed a new way to implement serialization. With a long history of meeting customer needs, Bison Bag was quick to deploy a solution to meet the client’s specific demands.

The application for this particular food processor included flexographic printing and converting of approximately 60 million bags annually for domestic and international use, which would now include serialization or lot coding. Based on need and the functionality of both printing and converting, it was determined that serialization was needed on the bag converting lines.

Meeting Needs

Several factors escalated the requirement for individual serialization for this application.

“First, the packaged bags are shipped to thousands of locations. Many times, the final end product is removed from the shipping box and that box, which has the manufactured lot code, is then discarded,” explains Bison Bag COO Jim Streicher Jr.

The bag-making department at Lockport, NY-based Bison Bag Company Inc

This is typical in the food industry and, should there be a problem, the end user doesn’t have the necessary information readily available, so there is no easy reference back to the producer. With individual serialization or lot coding, the end user can rely on the lot number printed on the bag to easily communicate information back to the producer.

A second need specifically deals with the typical printing and converting process. The millions of printed impressions could be converted on one of six bag-making lines at Bison Bag and any number of SKUs can be run multiple times throughout the year. This creates a plethora of variables to manage should a track-and-trace scenario occur. Even with rigorous incoming and outgoing quality control (QC), there is still a potential that a bag could have a seal issue.

With individual serialization or lot coding, Bison Bag can identify the job number or lot code, what machine the bag was converted on and the date the bag was manufactured, supporting the customer’s identification of the problem. This is a win-win scenario for both companies. Isolating the issue to a specific lot number saves both companies time and money tracking down unused inventory or product in the field. It minimizes rework and inventory issues from a lot of hundreds compared to the overall total of potentially tens of thousands.

Making the Mark(s)

The marking at Bison Bag is simple: It consists of a 14-digit identifier that includes job number or lot code, manufactured date and machine number. The mark is placed in an obscure place that is easily found but doesn’t impact any of the primary packaging graphics.

When Bison Bag initiated this process three years ago, it chose continuous inkjet (CIJ) for the marking with independent controllers at each bag-making line. The CIJ uses a combination of ink and make-up solution, which is considered the primary consumable, in the print process. Although 60 million bags is no small amount, this product line is not a full-time utilization of any of the bag machines. Intermittent converting of the product line and weekend or holiday downtime is no friend to CIJ printing. Start-up became cumbersome and created production issues and downtime due to clogged nozzles, frequent repair and maintenance visits.

Bison Bag Company Inc COO Jim Streicher Jr. (left) and President Scott Zgoda, standing with Matthews’ MPERIA controller. This single controller drives all the marking equipment across the company’s bag-making lines.

Bison Bag turned to Matthews Marking Systems, a division of FTA member Matthews International Corp, who also owns Schawk (another FTA member), to help provide a more reliable and efficient solution. Bison Bag’s requirements went beyond the basics of marking a bag—the company wanted a system that was operator friendly in creating the lot codes, and easy to install and maintain.

Andrew Braham, business development manager from Matthews, recommended MPERIA, its marking and coding automation platform, and its VIAjet L-Series thermal inkjet technology. The L-Series is a cartridge-based inkjet printer and has the ability to run at speeds of up to 2,400 fpm. The L-Series has 0.5-in. print height that can be expanded to 2-in. “The cartridge is the print engine; if there is an issue, replace the cartridge,” Braham explains. “It’s as simple as changing your cartridge on your home printer. Bison Bag no longer needs a service call or to send the printer out for repair.”

Most cartridge-based systems consume ink quickly and with 60 million bags being marked, Braham also recommended the Matthews Automated Bulk Ink System (ABIS). The ABIS connects the printer cartridge to a 1-l. bulk ink supply. The supply represents a print capacity of 3.6 million impressions prior to replacement. There is an estimated 20 percent decrease in consumable costs over the predecessor CIJ units and the time to change the bulk ink is about 30 seconds. For long weekends or intermittent printing windows, the L-Series print cartridge comes with an air-tight cap that seals off the print engine for protection from drying out and contamination.

A unique benefit to Bison Bag was the MPERIA controller. Previously, Bison Bag had one controller per print head, per bag-making line. The MPERIA controller enabled the company to utilize a single, centralized position, giving it the ability to drive all five production lines simultaneously. Each shift supervisor has access to set the lot code for each bag-making machine locally or through Virtual Network Computing (VNC), which allows remote replication of the controller to wireless-ready tablets or phones. Supervisors can change, edit or display what is printing on each line from their remote devices.

The next step for Bison Bag is to integrate MPERIA with its ERP system, which would include everything needed in the mark (lot code, machine number and date). This would allow the shift supervisor to select a message instead of building it for each production order.

According to Streicher, “Mathews delivered—It provided a simple and reliable system that will make our serialization and lot coding more efficient!”

About the Author: Mike Orcutt has been in the packaging industry for 32 years, starting in the engineering department at Luminite before moving into full-time prepress sales and technical support. After 20-plus years with RR Donnelley, Mike took over as technical director for Matthews International Corp with a focus on new technologies, including expanded gamut and digital plate making. He has served on many FTA committees and has both spoken at and chaired FTA events. In his current role, he is still involved in the packaging industry, both at the CPC and print level.

For more information on the solutions implemented at Bison Bag, contact Mike or Scott Zgoda.