17/5/2010

Laser coding for bottles with the versatile Linx SL301

Linx Printing Technologies has launched an enhanced version of its SL301 Scribing Laser coder, which the company believes is the fastest, most cost-effective and versatile coder available to the bottling industry.

Central to the Linx SL301’s effectiveness is its innovative Visicode™ technology, developed to deliver a much clearer code onto cold glass without compromising on speed, while keeping running costs low. This makes the Linx SL301 ideal for coding many different types of packaging, particularly bottles used for drinks, beauty care products and bottled foods such as sauces.  The coder can be customised to suit individual applications for optimum compatibility and is also suitable for coding a wide range of substrates in addition to glass, such as PET and other plastics.

Investment in digital galvos with near-instantaneous response times has helped to ensure that the Linx SL301 is the fastest laser coder on the market, increasing productivity over competition by more than 15% while maintaining a high quality code.  With the widest number of marking head and lens options available, the laser has more time to code, enabling customers to code more information onto each bottle, or save laser energy for more economic operation.

A more efficient cooling system contributes to a prolonged tube life of up to 45,000, depending on application – the longest on the market.  This is one of several design features developed to minimise maintenance and downtime, as Thomas Kingombe Kock, Linx Product Manager for lasers explains.  “The Linx SL301 is extremely reliable even in the most demanding factory environments.  As a result, service intervals are typically twice that of the industry standard.” 

Improved cooling also means that the IP54-rated version of the coder does not use expensive factory air for cooling.  A blower unit is required only for the optional IP65-rated laser for environments where washdown is critical.

With two tube wavelength options and the extensive choice of marking heads and lenses, the Linx SL301 can be fine tuned to better utilise laser power and improve performance.  This versatility is enhanced by a number of unique features developed based on Linx’s unrivalled knowledge of customer requirements.  In addition to Linx VisiCode™ technology, the optional QuickSwitch™ allows fast and easy code changes using a barcode scanner or other external device.  For applications coding on a label station, Label Enable ensures that the laser is triggered at just the right moment.

“The Linx SL301 is the only laser that gives the customer a range of features in one laser, for unparalleled versatility,” concludes Thomas Kingombe Kock.

“With its balance between speed, economic running and user-friendly operation, we believe that the Linx SL301 provides the best of all worlds for bottling applications.”