Laser coding - best solution for Brauer Natural Medicine
BRAUER Natural Medicine is a very successful Australian pharmaceutical company based in the Barossa Valley. Brauer’s products are distributed to more than 4000 retail outlets around the country.
The company recently purchased the Markem SmartLase coding unit from Unimark Identification Services .
Since 1960, Brauer Natural Medicine has been producing the highest quality natural homeopathic medicines, which are convenient and easy to use.
Some of the best-known Brauer products include Nervatona, Elimitona, Sleep and Insomnia, Snore Eze and an extensive range of Baby and Childcare medicines.
Brauer manufactures to exacting standards. There are strict requirements placed upon the company by the pharmaceutical industry and the whole operation emphasises quality.
All production is carried out in accordance with the Australian Code of Good Manufacturing Practice for Therapeutic Goods (Code of GMP).
The versatile Brauer facility is designed to be totally compliant. There is automated equipment and a trained and disciplined production team that works to proven operating procedures.
As part of a 3-5 year facilities upgrade, Brauer began looking to improve the company's batch and date coding system for carton product packaging in 2004.
The Brauer packaging itself creates a challenge because many of the packs are quite small. Space can be at a premium.
In looking at coding systems, an underlying concern for Brauer was that because they manufacture natural medicines, they did not want toxic inks coming into the plant.
In particular, Brauer is conscious of environmental issues and only uses vegetable base inks in the printing of cartons.
Brauer carefully examined all the options for coding and late in 2004 they purchased the Markem SmartLase unit from Unimark Identification Services. They have been very happy with this purchase.
The Markem SmartLase is the latest in laser technology. It does not use any inks or solvents, but it creates the batch code and date by ablating a fine layer from the packaging surface, leaving a reverse print effect.
The reasons that Brauer chose the Markem SmartLase unit
"There were two main benefits that influenced us: the clarity of the coding and the range of font sizes available," explained Operations Manager, Sharryn Hueppauff.
"We went for laser technology essentially because we found that many inks tend not to produce a clear print when the font is small and that was of concern to us.”
Sharryn also points out that another major benefit for Brauer is the flexibility of the laser.
"In particular, the flexibility in where we can print is an excellent advantage for us,” she said. “We can turn the laser around to print wherever we want to."
Since Brauer began using the Markem SmartLase unit its 'ease of use' has been very welcome by the plant operators.
"Being able to program the unit and then store so much information means there are really worthwhile time savings as you change from one batch to another," said Sharryn Hueppauff.
"Apart from the benefits the product offers, we were very impressed that, as the Australian distributor, Unimark was happy to bring the actual SmartLase unit to our premises and show it to us properly."
"And then when we purchased they were there for us - supporting us and setting it up. They made the whole process very easy."
Efficiency is critical to Brauer Natural Medicine.
"For us it was not a matter of volume,” said Managing Director Rowland Pengilly. “It was totally about being able to do what we need it to do and to perform consistently and efficiently. In the end, we chose laser because it is more efficient than any of the other processes.”
"The substantial export business that we are now developing, also influenced our decision in favour of the Markem SmartLase."
"Our sales into Korea are going especially well and the Korean market requires all our products to be packaged in cartons that have an ultra glossy surface. It's a finished surface that inks cannot handle but the Markem SmartLase handles it with ease."
5-Jun-2006