New technology to cut spotless roll-fed labels
- Details
- Published on Friday, 15 July 2011 01:00
SWIZTERLAND - Sidel has developed a system that cuts roll-fed labels without identification marks, ensuring better visual appearance and material savings. SMAR is available as an option on all types of Sidel roll-fed labelers, whether new or already installed on site.
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Sidel Markless Registration Technology, or SMAR, is composed of a specific optical sensor that detects the total length of a label and memorizes it as a template prior to production. It consists of a specific sensor connected to an external synchronization system working with physical or simulated encoders that continually correlate the label template with the signal given by the sensors. The sensors were developed by the SICK AG, based in Waldkirch, Germany, one of the world’s leading producers of intelligent sensor solutions for industrial applications.
Before starting the production a reference image is saved by SMAR through a teach-in process. The operator feeds the roll of labels into the machine and inserts the length of the design. The label is then automatically scanned and memorized, creating a reference map. During production the labels are unspooled from the roll, identified by 
scanning and compared to the reference image before being cut.
Sidel claims that SMAR is very accurate compared to traditional cutting technologies; the labels are reproduced with no more than a millimeter difference between the reference label and the labels read during the production. Its sensors will detect the entire label and not just a mark that might be confused with an element of the label design leading to false separation of labels. Due to position control SMAR offers a particularly high reliability of the labeler.
The maximum roll speed of SMAR amounts to seven meters per second with a maximum label length of 0,5 meters, ticketing, for example, 60 000 bottles per hour with 420 millimeter long labels.
Aesthetic and material gains
SMAR offers a wide range of benefits, including the outward appearance. Particularly in the case of transparent labels, the absence of an identification spot improves the label’s aesthetics significantly.
The system also provides advantages in the material processing. Eliminating the identification mark means a decrease of the overlap area on the label’s edges of between three to five millimeters. The length of the label is thus reduced, leading to substantial material savings in high-volume production.
Suitable for all Sidel systems
To ensure the optimal exploitation of a machine’s or a line’s full potential, SMAR can be added to every Sidel system on the installed base. It takes less than two hours to install the option on a machine at a customer site, allowing a sustainable optimizing of the labeling process.
