Recently a manufacturer of cups and lids for the fast food industry received new traceability requirements from their customer. The customer, a national fast food chain, was instituting a new tracking program to ensure quality and improve internal logistics within their system.

The new traceability requirements called for each sleeve of cups and lids to carry batch and lot codes. The manufacturer obviously wanted a solution that provided the highest quality mark delivered at the lowest operating costs to minimize the effect on profit margins. Upon hearing the news, the manufacturer called the specialists at ID Technology.

The IDT sales and product team met with the manufacturer to gain an understanding of the production facility, the customer’s needs and the legacy bagging machinery with which the new product identification system would be integrated. Following a review of several technologies, IDT recommended an intermittent Thermal Transfer Overprinter.

The new application is integrated into the existing line, where the bagging machine signals the Thermal Transfer Overprinter. The Overprinter then pre-prints the bag with a batch and lot code that has been keyed into the Uni-controller prior to the production run. As an added benefit, the Thermal Transfer Overprinter allows the manufacturer to include a manufactured date on the bag for added traceability, a feature that delivers added value to the end customer.

Not only was the manufacturer able to secure their customer’s business, they were also able to reduce the cost impact by using Thermal Transfer Overprinter vs. other more costly technologies. Plus, the end customer saw unique ways the new identification system could be used to aid in sales and marketing efforts for their company.

For more information on this Thermal Transfer Overprinter solution, or any of the complete line of IDT Thermal Transfer Overprinters contact ID Man at idman@idtechnology.com.