Labelling aids production
March 1st 2009 Two years ago,Holfeld Plastics implemented an integrated
and wireless 2D barcode labelling solution designed by
Zetes Ireland to automate the labelling and production
works orders required in the manufacturing process and
ensure they are produced to the highest quality standards
Holfelds, a fully Irish owned thermoforming
and extrusion company
supplying packaging for both food
& non-food in Northern Europe.With the
current emphasis on corporate responsibility
and encouraging businesses to reduce their
environmental impact, increasing numbers
of companies are looking for ways to
minimise their carbon footprint. In the food
manufacturing industry, an easy step in the
right direction is to switch to recycled
packaging materials wherever possible and
there is currently a major push amongst
suppliers and retailers to use recycled plastics
and then publicise this positive act to the end
consumer.
For Holfelds, this has seen the proportion
of their business involving recycled plastics
increase to almost 45-50% today, and it is
still growing. "Everyone wants to be able to
say their packaging is 100% recycled",
explains IT manager Robert Byrne. "The
demand is for both recycled polymers such
as polyethylene teraphilate and thinner,
lower weight packaging."
End product integrity and quality are key
attributes which have been much improved
after Holfelds integrated
automated barcode labelling
into their manufacturing and
distribution processes. "When
you recycle plastic polymers,
the more times you re-use a
particular compound the less
useable it becomes. Basically
the polymer chains making
up the plastic get weaker
because the production
process causes them to break
and reform," says Robert
Byrne. "This means the
properties of the plastic are
altered, for instance becoming
less resilient, and potentially no
longer appropriate for food use."
During the recycling process, post
consumer plastic is granulated, reformed
into sheets and then molded into plastic
trays. It is critical no cross contamination
occurs with different kinds of plastic
material. In addition, it is also important
that all recyclable materials coming into the
plant are labeled by polymer type and colour
before being stored in sealed bags within the
warehouse for future use. Being able to
identify the type and also origins of a
particular polymer – including when and
where it was made – before it goes into the
recycling process is absolutely critical
information for Holfeld Plastics to record,
and this is precisely what the barcode
labelling system from Zetes enables the
company to do.
Holfelds wanted to completely automate
their systems so that there was no possibility
of using the wrong materials. "You cannot
mix plastics – if you are making a
microwaveable tray it must be made from
microwaveable plastic. We needed to make
sure substrate materials were correctly
identified using a barcode, that scanners
could verify this was the correct material to
use and that this would stop the process
going any further if an error occurred. Now,
once batch information printed on a label is
accepted we know it's the correct asset and
we can go on to trace the item by its batch
number step by step right through the
manufacturing and distribution process."
Last year Holfeld Plastics moved to a new
25,000m2 production facility located in
Arklow, Co Wicklow, with a 5000 pallet space
warehouse. Their barcode scanning and
warehouse management system, also from
Zetes, was able to instantly scale from the
original 1100 pallet spaces it was originally
designed for and cope with increased data
volumes. As wireless experts, Zetes were also
able to advise Holfeld on the type of
hardware best suited for their application.
Rather than use an ordinary barcode tethered
scanner, Holfeld has implemented a wireless
MC 3090 scanner located at each of their
production machines, in both the thermoforming
and extrusion production areas. This
allows the operators to print labels, record
production values and verify all raw materials
against a central database. A Zebra Z4M
wireless printer was installed at each machine
to provide the required labelling. Holfelds
warehouse also uses wireless MC3090
scanners paired with the larger Zebra Z6M
wireless printers.
"The automated labelling and printing has
significantly reduced the chances for human
error, to the extent that Holfelds have not
encountered a labelling issue since the
project went live I would say Holfeld are
now at the cutting edge of manufacturing
and a leading Irish company supplying the
whole of Europe," says Robert Byrne. More articles from Zetes Ireland: | 
