Frequently Asked Questions

Stainless steel, aluminium, brass, copper, titanium, coated metals and many plastics such as ABS, PA and PC. Clear glass, wood and plain paperboard are better served by CO2 or UV sources.

A Q-switched source has a fixed pulse width and suits most engraving and coding work. A MOPA source lets you tune pulse width and frequency, giving finer control over heat input for black anodised marks, colour marks and delicate plastics.

No inks or solvents. Running costs are electricity, periodic lens cleaning and fume-filter replacement.

UV marks many plastics without additives and without melting the surface. Fiber often needs laser-sensitive additives to mark light-coloured polyolefins with good contrast.

Yes. UV changes the colour of suitable ink or film layers without perforating the web, which protects the barrier properties of the pack.

3–5 W covers most static and moderate-speed coding. 10–15 W is used for high-speed film and extrusion lines or for larger marks.

9.3 µm is the standard choice. It creates a shallow, frosted mark with good contrast and far less risk of thinning the bottle wall than 10.6 µm.

Not effectively. Bare metals reflect CO2 wavelengths; use a fiber laser. CO2 does work on painted or anodised metal by removing the coating.

Sealed RF tubes typically run for tens of thousands of hours before a regas is needed. Service interval depends on duty cycle and cooling.

Direct thermal needs no ribbon and suits short-life logistics labels. Thermal transfer gives durable, long-life print and works on synthetic labels.

A GS1 logistics label carries the SSCC in both human-readable form and a GS1-128 barcode, usually on two adjacent sides of the pallet.

Yes. Stroke-sensing tamp applicators adapt to height automatically within their stroke range.

Typically within ±1 mm on stable containers. Accuracy depends on container consistency, label quality and line speed.

Front-and-back labellers with a wrap station can handle both; changeover involves guide and belt adjustments.

A sleeve applicator cuts and drops the sleeve, and a steam or electric tunnel shrinks it to the container contour.

Reading confirms the code decodes. Verifying measures quality against an ISO standard and returns a grade, which predicts how reliably other scanners will read it.

Yes. OCR tools trained on dot-matrix fonts read CIJ codes; consistent print position and contrast improve read rates.

Yes. The system can receive the expected data from the coder or line software so every job change updates the inspection automatically.

Choose uniform for batch production of one size at a time. Choose random where mixed sizes arrive in any order, as in e-commerce fulfilment.

Tape is simple and flexible. Hot melt costs less per case at high volume and gives a tamper-evident, recyclable closure.

Side belts suit most stable cases. Top-and-bottom belts grip tall, narrow or heavy cases more securely.

PP is economical for light and medium cartons. PET holds tension longer and replaces steel for heavy or rigid loads.

Turntables are simple and cost-effective for stable loads. Rotary arms wrap very heavy, light or unstable loads because the pallet does not turn.

Powered pre-stretch at 250% turns one metre of film into three and a half, often halving film use compared with manual wrapping.

A cobot cell is compact, quick to redeploy and suits up to roughly 8–10 cases a minute. Industrial robots handle higher speeds, heavier cases and multiple lines.

Tool-less changeovers on modern cartoners and case packers typically take 15–30 minutes with recipe recall.

Cartons are coded by TIJ or laser at the cartoner discharge; cases by inkjet or label after sealing; pallets by an SSCC labeller after wrapping.