Inline label printing

Inline label printing on demand makes labelling of pharmaceuticals much more efficient and reduces label waste.

Customize and print only the labels you need. Our software solution for digital print automation manages the entire process from artwork to inspection.

 

Never throw unused labels in the trash again

Regulatory demands require that pharmaceuticals are labelled in local languages. For most pharma companies, that amounts to thousands of label variants on stock at all times.

This way of handling labelling comes with three major disadvantages:

  • It creates waste. Labels have a limited lifetime and many end up never being used.
  • It’s inefficient. Valuable production time is spent on changing label rolls between batches.
  • It’s expensive. Companies purchase more labels than needed and printing costs for small batches are disproportionally big.

Start from blank with inline label printing

Late-stage customization eliminates the need for keeping thousands of label variants in stock. One uniform white label type can be enough.

With inline digital printing, data is fed into the printer from a label artwork database and a batch information database.

That means the complete label content – both the static artwork, text, and dynamic data – is printed at once.

 

Inline label printing on white labels
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Benefits of inline label printing

  • Reduced waste. Fewer labels in the trash will get you closer to meeting your sustainability goals.
  • Shorter batch changeover time. Less time spent on changing labels means increased equipment utilization.
  • Shorter go-to-market time. Add new label variants in any language and print as you produce.
  • Improved quality control: Individual inspection of each and every label is part of the process.

A complete solution

Together with our partners HAPA and PPS we offer a complete solution for inline label printing.

But as any other CIM solution, the solution for digital print automation is hardware agnostic and works with the hardware platform of your choice.

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Inline label printing

Explore features and functionality here

Fully automated, no-intervention processarrow

The software solution for digital print automation handles the entire process autonomously.

When a new batch starts, the system grabs the artwork pdf, distributes the content to the printer, vision inspection system, etc. and checks that everything is ready before giving the main line the go for production.

All the operator has to do is start the batch on the main line as usual. From there, the system handles everything automatically:

  1. The system downloads batch data from PAS-X or any other L3 system.
  2. The newest artwork (PDF) is downloaded label from the artwork database.
  3. The system converts the PDF to a printer specific format incl. dynamic data positions.
  4. It then sends PDF and VDL positions to the vision system.
  5. It sends the selected inspection tools and their ROI to the vision system.
  6. It delivers the print format to printer.
  7. It continuously sends trace code/serial number to printer/vision system.
Builds on standardized software productsarrow

The solution for inline printing builds on several of our standardized software products.

The building blocks include:

  • SPECTS: Our pre-validated GAMP Cat. 4 vision system inspects each and every label.
  • S3: Our batch handling system is the backbone of the solution. Handles recipes and communication to all subsystems.
  • TRACKS: Our system for automated GxP data handling handles user management, logs audit trails and critical parameters and passes everything to the main lines level 3 system (e.g. PAS-X).
  • CATCH.AI: Our production data platform collects data from the entire line including images and vision results for SPC.
Inspection of static data in any languagearrow

Our proprietary solution for inspection of static text inspects & analyses each region to create a baseline for quick inspection.

The solution is vector-based and does not need to be taught fonts, sizes or languages.

It adjusts the tolerances of how much space and how much “character” is needed, ensures that the holes in character languages are present, and that there is separation between the characters.

The solution can find defects even in very small font sizes, e.g. 2.5 (how small depends on the chosen camera solution).

Artwork updates in one placearrow

There is only one place to go for changing label artwork: The system's label designer. All updates are automatically transferred to all other systems.

Want to print labels on demand?

Get in touch
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