Ringnes AS
Coding and marking in the damp environment of a bottling plant is a challenge, but Linx Printing Technologies systems supplied by its Scandinavian distributor, the ACT Group, have offered Norway’s biggest brewery a reliable solution.
Ringnes AS is owned by the Carlsberg Group and employs more than 1,400 people producing drinks, including Imsdal, Pepsi, EC Dahl’s, Ringnes and Tuborg beer.
The Ringnes bottling plant at Gjelleråsen codes up to 70,000 products per hour, often over several shifts. Having a high volume of products going through the factory meant that the company needed a coding system that was reliable and could tolerate high speeds in a demanding environment – and over several hours of continuous operation.
After some significant problems with its previous system the brewer purchased seven Linx Continuous Ink Jet (CIJ) printers, which code dates on 15-20 products per second.
Linx CIJ printers are renowned for their reliability, even in challenging production environments. Ringnes have found the Linx CIJ printers easy to operate and maintain and, with a minimum IP55 rating and a robust sealed printhead, more reliable than their previous system.
Ringnes organiser Morten Moen explains: “We used to have big problems with labelling, and we were compelled to find machines and suppliers that could give us a more stable operation.”
Meanwhile Linx scribing laser coders are in use at the leading water brand Imsdal. PET bottles are filled and then laser coded by two 50W Linx laser coders, which have provided a robust solution to coding in a damp environment.
The Linx lasers are also being used to code green bottles of Carlsberg beer at the Gjelleråsen bottling plant. Linx distributor partner ACT and Ringnes have a long tradition of working together, with ACT delivering their first CIJ printer to the EC Dahl’s brewery in Trondheim in 2001.
ACT has supplied the Norwegian market with labelling, checking and system solutions for the last twenty years, and has represented Linx for the last seventeen years.