Category Archives: Label Printers

Doob Tube Labels & More

Label Printers
Peter Howell from Great Engineering in Australia came to Color Label Solutions this week to provide additional training on their line of label applicators; especially covering small container labeling.


Color Label Solutions Team
Color Label Solutions Team
If you don’t know this company, Great Engineering (https://greatengineering.com/) makes world class label application equipment.  Ideal for cylindrical containers for many industries: food and beverage, pharmaceuticals and cosmetics. And don’t forget the boutique beverage and cannabis markets.  Here is my previous post on the BenchMax applicator:

http://colorlabelsondemand.blogspot.com/2017/04/benchmax.html

During our session, a few key points came out that I decided to share with you.  First, the economical BenchMate (https://greatengineering.com/benchmates/) offers the capability to integrate with a C3500 label printer.

BenchMate Integrated with the C3500
BenchMate Integrated with the C3500

Although using a hand crank, this manual applicator can apply a lot of labels, quickly and affordably.  In addition, this manual applicator has the capability to apply 2 labels on one container, with very precise positioning. With the addition of the interface unit and foot press, you can print directly into the BenchMate, eliminating any requirement for rewinding.  I find this capability very intriguing; especially given the price of the unit.
The BenchMate plus the Interface, Cable, Footpress and Freight to the US from Australia as seen in the above picture costs $1990.  No other applicator at this price enables the printing of color labels directly into the applicator.
In you have containers less than 55 mm in diameter, the BenchMate+ offers the ability to apply labels to containers down to 17 mm (11/16”) in diameter. Be sure to watch this video of applying labels to very small bottles from the BenchMate’s webpage.  



The BenchMate+ with the small container adapter and overhead roller costs $510 more than the BenchMate; totaling $2,500 with the components to apply labels directly printing from the C3500.
Second, Peter worked with us to apply labels to tapered bottles.  Tapered containers, such as joint or “Doob” tubes, make label application very difficult; given the difference in diameter/speed of the container as it turns on the applicator.  For example, we are currently working on a label that is .6875” on the tapered end; and 1.125” on the larger end.  This .4375” difference is what makes label application tough.
Watch us apply a 2” x 1” label on a tapered joint tube with lip/lid.


As you can see in the video, the blue rollers of the small container adapter are moved to allow for the lip connecting the lid on top of the container.  These type of design considerations make the BenchMax a very flexible machine.
And here is another video of the same application providing more detail on how the system works for applying labels to tapered containers.


And in this video, we applied several labels on the same tube; to show how the BenchMax applies labels in the same position each time.


In this last video, you can see how we cut the rollers to better apply the labels.  Based on your containers, the BenchMax makes it easy to adapt the applicator for the type of container you have.  No other label applicator makes adapting to the container easier.  In this video, Peter from Great Engineering shows how to remove and cut the rollers to better fit your containers.


Third, the BenchMax offers an orientation capability.  With this feature, you can apply labels on a round container in precisely the same position on every bottle.  In our training, we used a Mason jar, and applied labels relative to the position of the embossed letters on the jar.  Wish I had pictures; bummer.
Based on our meeting, I’ve found the BenchMax a very interesting choice for applying labels to a variety of round containers; especially small container vials.  With the ability to integrate with the Epson printers, the ease of adapting to a variety of containers sizes and shapes, and the minimum sizes down to 8 mm in diameter make the BenchMax and BenchMate label applicators good choices for many companies.  Contact us to learn more how these devices will fit your operation.
Guy Mikel
855-962-7670
info@colorlabelsolutions.com

Complete Print Shop

Label Printers

Postmark (http://postmark-usa.com/) showed their new CMYK printer at the Franchise Services Expo July 27 and 28 in Long Beach.  Combined with their fixed feeder, Postmark calls their solution the Complete Print Shop.


CMYK Printer With Fixed Thickness Feeder
CMYK Printer With Fixed Thickness Feeder
With the fixed thickness feeder, you can print a wide variety of items that are difficult to impossible to print with normal printers.


Watch the new CYMK printer and Fixed Thickness Platform run here:


And print Coasters:

On-Demand Color Coasters
On-Demand Color Coasters

Coffee Sleeves:

On-Demand Color Coffee Sleeves
On-Demand Color Coffee Sleeves

Paper Bags:

On-Demand Color Bags
On-Demand Color Bags
Thick Menu Cards or Shelf Talkers:

On-Demand Color Cards/Shelf Talkers
And other items such as envelopes, bubble envelopes, napkins, small boxes, etc.  Pretty much anything paper you can now print with the fixed thickness feeder and the CYMK printhead.
You may remember we showed an earlier version of this device at WestPack 2017:

http://colorlabelsondemand.blogspot.com/2017/02/westpack-2017.html

and a slightly different version at WestPack 2016:

http://colorlabelsondemand.blogspot.com/2016/02/cls-at-westpack-2016.html

From my perspective, the biggest difference with the latest iteration is the software.  Now, Postmark has integrated the Navigator RIP from Xitron:

http://www.xitron.com/products/navigator-harlequin-rip/

With this software, now you can print PDF’s easily; and get better print quality.  Plus the workflow seems much easier to use.  The Navigator RIP is a big step forward in ease of use of the CMYK print engine.
In addition to the new RIP, Postmark has reconfigured the printer; eliminating the need for hoses, wires and connectors.  This new configuration makes it much easier to set up and run.
The 4” CYMK printer, Fixed Thickness Feeder and RIP costs approximately $20,000.  The 8” version costs approximately $25,000.
If you need to print a wide variety of “thick” items; or you want to add a new source of income for your printing business, contact us to discuss how the CYMK print engine and Fixed Thickness Platform would work for you.
Guy Mikel
855-962-7670
info@colorlabelsolutions.com  

1″ Solution

Label Printers
This week something happened that makes me want to “blow our own horn”.  Maybe we’re boasting, but I’m very happy by how we supported a client this week.  Let me tell you more.


1″ Labels-Print & Apply
We’ve been selling to several customers 1” wide labels for printing with the C7500 and C7500G.  What makes this fact interesting is the minimum print width on the C7500G is 2”.  Please see this post for more information:

http://colorlabelsondemand.blogspot.com/2016/06/cryogenic-narrow-labels.html

For this customer, we created a 1” label centered on a 2” liner.  And it worked perfectly.

1
1″ Wide Label-2″ Total Construction
In addition, this customer uses basically all black artwork.  And black is the most difficult color by far.  Here is what we’re recommending for all black labels:

http://colorlabelsondemand.blogspot.com/2016/11/ink-pigments.html

After several months, the customer purchased an automatic label applicator from Label-On; The Label-On Mini 500 Tabletop applicator:

http://www.label-on.com/tabletop-round-bottle-labeling-machine/

This applicator, however, would not allow us to account for the .5” liner on the “bottom” side of the label.  Normally, exposed liners are approximately only 3 mm or less.  Attempting to apply the 1” labels centered, we would have place them above the start of the taper on the bottle.  Therefore we had to move the label from the center.
To make this change, we changed the die to make the labels, placing it on one side; and making the exposed liner basically on 1 side.

1
1″ Wide Label-One Side Justified
It was very difficult to come to agreement, however, on which side to place the label.  We had to account not only for the applicator placement of the label, but also the fact the labels would be rewound to place on the applicator.  It may not sound complex, but this requirement led to a great deal of discussion.  And some worry on my part.
Once the labels were manufactured, our customer tested them; and found the labels did not print at all correct.  They were still centered on the 2” label.  Frankly, I had forgotten to tell the customer of the need to redo the artwork.  Tim, our Support Manager, figured this out quickly. But was still “nerve-wracking” for me.
To support our customer, we quickly recreated labels the labels adding the extra liner and bleed.

1
1″ Wide Label PDF- 2″ Total Construction
Once we had the new artwork, the label printed close to perfect; we had to move horizontally the label to print full-bleed.  A slim line of white was exposed on one side.  Using the horizontal alignment feature in the C7500G driver and changing slightly the media size, the label printed perfectly.  And the rewinder worked as expected.  Watch us print and rewind here:


More important to me, the label worked on the applicator:

C7500G Printed 1
C7500G Printed 1″ Wide Label Applied By Applicator
Watch the Mini 500 Tabletop apply these 1” labels onto the bottle perfectly.


Reading this post, it may not sound like much.  But getting this label design to work correctly was a lot of effort.  And I appreciate the patience the customer showed during this process.
If you want to print 1” wide labels or any other difficult or special color labels on-demand, contact us.  We’ll help you create the solution that meets your requirements.
Guy Mikel
855-962-7670
info@colorlabelsolutions.com 

Edible Love

Label Printers

Love’s Oven (www.lovesoven.com) products are produced with the highest quality all-natural ingredients that are sourced locally (Colorado beet sugar) and organically (organic coconut oil) whenever possible. Their proprietary THC & CBD extraction methods ensure that you receive a consistent and effective dose of cannabutter/cannaoil Love in every bite.

Love’s Oven was born in 2009 with a promise to its patients to provide great tasting cleanly extracted products to help with their chronic pain and other ailments.  If you look at the label of any of their 15+ products you’ll never find any ingredients that you need to have a chemical engineering degree to pronounce. Ingredients like crystallized ginger and honey roasted peanut butter are about as complicated as it gets.  Love’s Oven has built its reputation by crafting their products in a state of the art facility in Denver where their food safety and quality assurance programs guarantee you’ll receive a potent and delicious product that can be found throughout Colorado.

In the fall of 2016, Colorado issued new label requirements that caused Love’s Oven to change their labeling procedures. According to Katie Wrank, Administrative Assistant & Marketing, “Colorado mandated that we add the Universal THC Symbol, in various sizes and colors, to each label for both medical and recreation use.  At the time, we were using a black only, DataMax thermal transfer printer adding variable data on top of five different preprinted labels in conjunction to printing some on a laser printer. This process was very frustrating and time consuming.  We had to make a change.”
Katie says, “While growing significantly, we needed an efficient and improved process to label our products. Prior to any changes, our work flow was to extract label information from the daily production list, transfer the production numbers and product information manually to the packaging order, and then type everything by hand onto our label templates. With over eighty-eight label templates requiring daily changes, our label process was at risk for human error. Plus, all these changes were too much for one person to manage.” 
To change their label process, Love’s Oven contacted Rich Arbogast of Sendata Systems, (www.sendatasystems.com). As a partner of Color Label Solutions, Rich contacted us to see if we have a solution for Love’s Oven.  Rich said, “Sendata are experts at managing data and thermal transfer printers.  But decided to work with Color Label Solutions to bring the best possible print on-demand color label system for our customer, Love’s Oven.
To start the process, we printed sample labels on the C7500G.  We recommended this printer given their need for a large volume of gloss labels.

Love's Oven C7500G Full-Bleed Label
Love’s Oven C7500G Full-Bleed Label
In addition, we provided an estimated ink cost of their labels.

C7500G Estimated Ink Yield
C7500G Estimated Ink Yield
On these long, full-bleed labels, I estimated the ink cost at $0.027 per label.  Based on the samples and estimated ink costs, Love’s Oven purchased a C7500G printer.
About the C7500G, Katie says, “We now have the ability to print on demand labels quickly and efficiently. We also have the design flexibility to change our graphics on a moment’s notice.  Many of our customers love to see their logo printed in full color on products that contain their trim or flower.”
While working with Love’s Oven, I learned about their new label creation process.  Katie says, “to improve our labeling process, I decided to use a mail merge technic that I used in a former position at a large shipping and printing company. In Excel, I created a database of our products, including all the variable information: product name, ingredients, allergens, net weight, and pieces per package. This database allows us to quickly update product information such as changes to a recipe. On another tab in the Excel database, we retain information about the ingredients used during the cultivation of the marijuana, which are required by the state of Colorado. By using the VLOOKUP command in Excel, we pull information pertaining to each product, automating the data input on the production list.”
“Once we have the products compiled in one list, we use Adobe InDesign to merge the data with our artwork onto the backgrounds of our label templates. With this workflow, we can export all our labels from one file as separate PDF files which print like a dream on the C7500G.”

C7500G Label
C7500G Label
One other interesting note, Rich has worked to help Love’s Oven to print THC symbols on their brownies using white, food-grade ink.  What a great solution Rich put together for Love’s Oven.

Edible Ink Printed Brownies
Edible Ink Printed Brownies
“With the constantly changing Cannabis labeling/direct marketing laws and regulations required by the State of Colorado, providing the best solution to these requirements was our goal. I believe we hit the mark with the C7500G printer for the packaging labels and direct marking food grade inkjet coder for applying the mark directly to the edible products. These products are the only ones I know that can print with the quality needed for the labels, and the food grade ink for the direct marking of the edible food cannabis products.”
We’re excited by the success at Love’s Oven.  If you need a new labeling solution for your cannabis or any other products, contact Color Label Solutions.  We’ll help you meet the regulatory requirements of your industry; and produce beautiful labels in the process.

Guy Mikel
855-962-7670
info@colorlabelsolutions.com 

Meet Tim

Label Printers
Recently, our Support Manager, Tim Semic, reached a milestone in providing support to our customers: 1,000 support calls.


Color Label Solutions’s Support Manager-Tim
You may have read some of Tim’s previous posts.

http://colorlabelsondemand.blogspot.com/2015/07/word-sucks.html Word Sucks

http://colorlabelsondemand.blogspot.com/2015/09/over-wan.html Over A Wan

http://colorlabelsondemand.blogspot.com/2016/02/printing-from-epson-label-printers.html Printing Labels Using Mac’s

http://colorlabelsondemand.blogspot.com/2017/07/no-risk-label-printing.html No Risk Label Printing

Tim’s first call entry was May 7th, 2015; about 2.5 years ago.  When I learned of Tim’s call milestone, I asked, “what do you remember from your first call logged?”  According to Tim, “My first call was from a large beverage company and I remember being a bit nervous. The problem turned out to be a bug in the C3500 printer driver software that I was able to resolve by uninstalling and then reinstalling it using the Epson Install Navi. The Epson Install Navi is a more comprehensive installer and is helpful in installing label printers onto an Ethernet network. I have found that certain problems can be resolved by reinstalling the printer driver.”  Having never trained or worked as a Network Manager, I find these support situations the most difficult.

C7500 Install Navi
Install Navi 
I also thought immediately, how many calls did you take prior to starting a call log?  Tim said, “I took about fifty calls before I started logging them. At first, all I logged was the problem, but later for reference I noted what the fix was too.” Initially, I did a lot of the support calls.  But now Tim handles almost all of them.

C7500G
C7500G
When I provide support, I get frustrated easily; as I want to provide the answer to the issue quickly.  Given my personal experience, I asked Tim what he does not to get frustrated.  “If I begin to feel frustrated, I know it’s time to take a break.  I don’t want to burden our customer with this feeling. I just take it one step at a time and enjoy the work.”  Good idea.
But some calls are difficult.  I asked Tim what was his worst support call.  Tim said, “My worst call is any call where I find a hardware failure. I like to be able to solve problems for our customers.  When a device has a hardware failure, I can’t fix this kind of problem over the phone.  I have to give my customer the bad news. Depending upon the problem, the device may be unusable until it has been repaired. That’s not the kind of resolution that I hope for when I take a call.  Machines and electronic devices are susceptible to failure. Ask yourself this, if a device you own fails, would that be an inconvenience or a catastrophe?  If the answer is catastrophe, you should have a plan in place for when that device fails.  All mechanical and electronic devices will eventually fail.  It’s not a question of if, it’s a question of when, so please be prepared.”  Good advice Tim.  
But for the difficult calls, you get great calls as well.  I asked Tim what was the call that you provided the most support.  According to Tim, “I helped a chemical company set up their printing system.  After the setup was completed, I went on to create PDF format labels for them over the course of a year.  That on-going support was great as it allowed me to form a relationship with the customer.” 

Tim continued, “Also, I recently took a call around 10 p.m. at night, where the customer was planning on just leaving me a message.  We wound up working together that night to set up his new label printer.  We finished up slightly before midnight.  He was very grateful for the late night assistance which allowed them to be up and printing the next day.  I was happy to help.”  All I can say it, thanks Tim for great customer support!  You’re raising the bar for us high!

C3500
C3500 
At Color Label Solutions, we provide technical support to our customers, both initially to get them printing quickly and easily; and anytime they need additional help.  And we help them navigate the break/fix process when their printers need repair.  If you need a label printing solution, purchase from someone like us that is available to help when needed.
Guy Mikel
855-962-7670
info@colorlabelsolutions.com