Printer gives Sonopress a clear advantage

When the Dublin based division of Sonopress won the contract to produce and package DVDs for the US launch of a major games product, the company needed an 'out-of-the-box' labelling solution.

When the Dublin based division of Sonopress, one of the world's leading CD and DVD manufacturers, won the contract to produce and package DVDs for the US launch of a major games product, the company turned to Advanced Labelling Systems (ALS), to provide an 'out-of-the-box' labelling solution that succeeded where other systems failed.

As a company grows, it is able to tackle projects that promise greater economic rewards and, more importantly, set higher technical standards.

This was the case for Sonopress when it won the contract to produce and package DVDs for the new game console.

It seemed the ideal project until the company discovered that its local printer suppliers were unable to provide a suitable printer for the unusual DVD labels.

These are oval in shape and act as a proof-of-authenticity seal, when applied around the opening of the product box.

A unique serial numbered barcode was required to be over-printed, along with other product-related text.

Elson Elson, Maintenance Supervisor at Sonopress, says: "It's a difficult label to print and our local suppliers simply could not help us".

In particular, the labels presented specific production difficulties as they are partly preprinted with a white strip on a transparent substrate, sitting on a clear backing paper, making registration and gap detection difficult.

It wasn't until Elson contacted his colleagues in the company's Birmingham plant that a solution was unearthed.

"They use a lot of ALS equipment", Elson explains, "and they suggested that ALS could help us".

The solution was ALS' high-speed, thermal transfer Chess 5 printer, which has been especially designed for high-quality label printing in retail, office, manufacturing and warehouse environments, controlled by their EtiCAD2000 labelling package.

Elson says: "No other supplier could provide us with an out-of-the-box printer that could solve our problem as quickly as ALS".

Elson recalls that prior to contacting ALS, he considered using Sonopress' existing label printers but discovered that only one was compatible with the proposed label size and its detecting sensor was not advanced enough.

ALS, however, was able to offer a practical solution.

Elson says: "ALS provided us with a printer that had been proven in our Birmingham plant, was competitively priced and was delivered quickly".

Elson received the Chess 5 printer in October 2001 and was able to use it successfully on the launch run of the product.

Sonopress predicts that when they are running at full capacity on the product, its packaging and fulfilment factory, located just outside Dublin, will be producing 10-15,000, 122 x 32mm proof-of-authenticity labels daily.

However, Elson admits that print speed is not his major concern and stresses that he is more interested in print quality.

"Since the labels form an important part of our batch tracking system, it is important that they can be easily read - even through cellophane wrapping.

This means print quality is vital".

The Chess printer range has been designed to combine 64bit processing power with multitasking capabilities and 150MIPS transfer speeds.

More importantly for Elson and Sonopress, it also features a fine print resolution of 12dot/mm, 8 Mbyte of RAM and 17 standard and two vector fonts.

Elson says he is particularly impressed with the printer's menu functions, which, he notes, provide him with greater control over how labels are printed.

"The menu functions are very detailed - they cover every area and are relatively easy to follow".

Since it opened its first plant in Ireland in 1994, Sonopress has enjoyed year-on-year growth resulting in the company employing 360 workers.

With this success has come expansion, and with expansion has come the ability to take on more demanding projects.

With the help of ALS and the CHESS 5 printer, Sonopress has been able to continue its success and expand its technical boundaries.

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