Reliable Inkjet Printers' Appeal To Pharma Firm

Maintenance free and reliable operation are the key factors that have made the Wolke M600 thermal transfer inkjet printer the coder of choice at Smith and Nephew's advanced wound management factory.

Maintenance free and reliable operation are the key factors that have made the Wolke M600 thermal transfer inkjet printer, supplied in the UK by Sunala, the coder of choice at Smith and Nephew's advanced wound management factory in Hull (UK).

Fifteen M600s are installed at the facility, all of which operate with specially created validated pharmaceutical software, developed by Wolke in conjunction with Smith and Nephew.

The thermal transfer inkjet printers are being used to code a variety of information, including lot and date codes and machine and production line details on to both primary and secondary packs in a variety of materials, including directly on to bandages, operating at speeds up to 300 packs per minute.

Andrew Marris, asset care manager, at Smith and Nephew, said: "Reliability is critical to our operation and this is what sets the M600 apart from the competition.

Wherever we have put a Wolke M600 on to a line, machine downtime has been significantly reduced.

In fact, in the past five years we have had just one problem with one machine and that was speedily sorted out by Sunala and Wolke as part of the M600's five year parts and labour guarantee." Marris said running costs for the M600 are also favourable: "Prior to the installation of the Wolke M600, we used thermal transfer printers but we found spares and maintenance costs very expensive on these machines." Sunala said that by contrast, the M600 uses a unique HP cartridge system that contains both the ink and the printhead to ensure maintenance and trouble-free operation since the key elements of the printing system are replaced at the same time as new ink is required.

That also ensures a consistently high quality and easily readable code.

The coders are running 24 hours, five days-a-week.

An easy to use control panel allows product set-up and change-overs to be carried out by operators online.

Marris added: "The M600 sells itself.

There really is no other coder for us.".

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