T-Mark helps AAK Foods Streamline Product Marking
T-Mark has been called in to help sauce and condiment manufacturer, AAK Foods, improve product traceability by printing direct onto their product packaging.
Its low-maintenance thermal inkjet( TIJ) printers are being considered due to their reliability and low maintenance costs.
AAK Foods, whose customers include a range of high-street retailers and wholesalers, as well as independent restaurants and global fast-food chains, currently uses a mixture of labelling and direct product printing to mark its products with date and batch codes.
The company bought a Sojet Elfin E1S TIJ printer after meeting T-Mark at the PPMA Show in 2022
The E1S printer was chosen by AAK Foods to supersede a Continuous Inkjet( CIJ) printer, which they found unreliable and expensive to keep regularly serviced. The TIJ printer’ s zero maintenance
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requirements made it an attractive replacement option.
Head of Engineering, Neil Heselwood, said at the time,“ The Sojet has incurred zero line downtime in 18 months, the only maintenance is a wipe of the head and replacement ink cartridges. So, the fact that the printer costs less to purchase than a service pack used in a( continuous) inkjet coder is remarkable.”
It comes as little surprise, then, that AAK Foods is looking at more TIJ printers to help with improving product traceability.
The company manufactures food products for a variety of retailers, each of whom requires their own bespoke label, which needs batch codes and BBE info adding separately. By printing this information directly onto the product, AAK Foods can improve production efficiency and cut costs.
They are exploring options to mark on the necks of plastic bottles as
well as on to a variety of product bottle and tub lids. The Sojet TIJ machines are modular and can be easily adjusted to accommodate vertical or horizontal printing, different line speeds and lids with lips or shallow recesses.
Neil Heselwood says,“ We have worked closely with T-Mark in the past and have found their equipment, service and expertise to be excellent and so they were at the top of our list to work with on this project. This equipment needed to be easy to use, low maintenance, reliable, cost effective and compatible with our Auto Coding Systems.”
Sojet has introduced a new model to replace the Elfin. Its Moli range of printers includes the MoEco2000, which can use 2 x 12.5mm printheads to print up to 25mm high or 12.5mm on both sides of a product.
www. t-mark. co. uk 0330 153 8320