CASE STUDY NO. 9629
KEY WORDS CARTON LABELS, LASER PRINTING, INK-JETS
Anheuser-Busch Companies, Inc.
1 Busch Place
St. Louis, MO 63118
Contact: Lawrence W. Long, Director, Safety and Environmental Initiatives.
Tel: 314-577-4453. Fax: 314-577-3581
Summary
The company replaced an ink-jet package coder with a large-character laser-coder, totally eliminating inks, solvents, and maintenance, and satisfying return-on-investment requirements.
Action
The Anheuser-Busch plant in Cartersville, Georgia, north of Atlanta, is the newest brewery in the United States. Because beer is a perishable product, case packages must be coded before delivery to wholesalers. This is accomplished by imprinting codes on cases as they are conveyed from the packer. Code data represents information on production date, plant location, product, container, and stock number.
Previously, codes were applied using an ink-jet printer. But in the fall of 1994 the company replaced the ink-jet with a laser printer (Domino Digital Coder DDC from Domino Amjet, 1290 Lakeside Drive, Gurnee, IL 60031. 847-244-2501). Rather than apply ink the laser removes ink by vaporizing the top printed layer of a carton, exposing the white paperboard below. The portion of the carton struck by the laser beam turns to a fine, grayish ash, and the ash is removed by suction tubes to a central collection point.
The laser coder has all the advantages of an ink-jet system, including variable data and automatic time and date changes, but it eliminates some of the negatives associated with inks--reduced downtime for maintenance and adjustment, and elimination of the hazardous materials, disposal, and flammability issues associated with inks and solvents. (Besides being a matter of good business, the laser coder project was implemented as part of Anheuser-Busch's program emphasizing environmental responsibility.) The laser coder is more reliable, the company says, and has allowed wholesalers to better manage costs.
Payback
Though declining specifics, a company official said the new system "exceeds our hurdle rate for capital expenditures." Ink savings alone justified the laser cost. (Ink usage for ink-jet colors was approximately 5 gallons per week per line. The clay-coated paperboard used for cartons required the use of hazardous solvents--methyl ethyl ketone or ethanol.)
Additional Waste Prevented
Because the laser unit has no moving parts, no maintenance is required. There are no
levels to check, nothing to run out of, and no plugged ink nozzles, eliminating ordering,
deliveries, and downtime for repairs. Codes are entered in the laser printer system using
a light pen, which the company says drastically reduced the chance of error compared to
entering code data by keyboard. Since installation the system has remained error-free,
generating no miscoded cases, and the printing is still sharp. The success of this
installation has led Anheuser-Busch to install the system at nine other plants.