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Premiers three roller-wrap design has brought ease to some the trickiest of label applications on the market and has opened up the ability to apply different styles of labels at high speeds. This quarters Machinery Focus is based on our three roller-wrap unit, that has become a landmark of success within the Premier Labellers product catalogue, used as a module attachment on many of our machines.
Our three roller wrap offers a three-point contact labelling solution. This three-point contact is designed to eliminate label creasing / bubbling that is caused by inconsistencies in glass, plastic products and jars. The system is made up of two idle rollers in which clamps the product container in place while the drive roller initiates the application. Due to the design it has many other features to maintain the quality of the application as a whole. Some of the main features include:
Accuracy
In the labelling world, a definitive tolerance for label placement accuracy is usually taken into consideration by customers for the label position and skew; cosmetics or fragrance companies can be very picky on those tolerances. They can often be as low as ±0.5mm for the overall placement, however the manufacturing tolerances in the glass can be ±3mm and those inconsistencies will impact the labelling accuracy greatly. By gating the product at the application point, the product is stable before the label is even applied, and this in turn means the label placement is far more accurate than traditional linear wrap systems.
The speed of the label head can also be reduced so that the label is applying slightly slower than the rotational speed of the product within the rollers which, in effect, stretches the label onto the product and significantly reduces any visible artefacts in the label ie: glue, or air bubbles. These artefacts are normally caused by imperfections in the manufactured product and are particularly noticeable when applying clear plastic labels to glass bottles.
Another customisation would be for tapered bottles, in which the rollers would be tapered to ensure an accurate label application.
Orientation
In some cases, labels must be applied to a specific area on a round bottle. This could be to over-label with a new design, to add translated labels for export, or simply to align a logo with the cap or existing artwork position. We have various orientation sensors available which allow us to look for: artwork, colour, cap position, indents, eye marks, embossed areas, seams, etc. That orientation sensor can then be integrated into a three-roller wrap gating roller change part and used to trigger the label feed signal.
This has been applied to many types of products, a great example of this would be with some of our customers in the Alcohol & Beverage industry. We have developed multiple custom three roller wrap designs to cater for specialised bottle styles. As shown in the diagram to the right, This Three Roller-Wrap has custom idle gating rollers that fit into the indentation of the bottle, where the label would be applied.
Changeover Time
There are two main parts to the three-roller wrap which are: 'idle' gating rollers and the driven roller. The most common change part requirements are the gating rollers which are tool-less and easily interchangeable for various diameter ranges. The change parts can cover a variety of diameters and heights, providing there are no protruding elements to a bottle such as a trigger spray or lid lip that impede the rollers. The driven roller only needs to be changed when impeded and is easily changed using a long allen key that we provide with the machine. Faster changeover time means less downtime and a more profitable production run.
Front & or Back
Our three-roller system can be used to apply front and back labels that are printed alternately on a reel using a dual label feed with split delays and options for different offsets if the front and back labels are differing lengths, programmable in the touchscreen. This makes what would usually be a tricky front and back application far easier and has been tried and tested for several of our customers that were trying to apply clear labels to bottles. The only way to make sure the finish was perfect on the bottle was to utilise the dual label feed on the three-roller.
Models
We currently offer five standard models which utilise the three-roller attachment which are listed below:
P120 three-roller wrap: The entry level dedicated wraparound system that features our basic P100 label head.
P250 three-roller wrap: An upgrade from the P120 version in terms of labelling speeds and setup control.
P250 full spec machine: A fully flexible P250 that includes a three-roller attachment, our most popular machine.
P220 dual lane: A dual lane, dedicated wraparound system suitable for high speeds whilst maintaining three-roller accuracy.
P250 twin head three-roller wrap: Two P250 label heads on the operator side of the machine for auto-switching or applying a second label in orientation to the first.
Check out our website for more information on these models.
If you feel like this could be your ideal labelling solution, or need some advice on the machine/service you need then get in touch via any of our contact channels!