Fourteen months after installing the high-speed Videojet Focus S25 coder at their Epsom plant, Sanitarium describe its performance as excellent. The machine has run 24 hours a day, six days a week printing code on Weetbix boxes for entire North Island demand and some of the South Island.

Sanitarium Auckland engineering manager, Jeff Thoresen, reports that maintenance has reduced, downtime is less, reliability is up and running costs are down as there are no ink costs at all.

“We looked at various brands and found that installed costs were comparable”, says Thoresen. “But Videojet’s 25 Watt laser system seemed much more powerful than the others.

“So now we can achieve all the output we require with the machine running easily at only 50% power. Other systems would have had to struggle along at 100% power and we would have expected much more wear and tear”, he explains.

Declan Doorish, Auckland sales executive with Tronics NZ agreed. “We recommend the Videojet Focus S25 machine on their most important production line because the unit is operating on its lowest level, just ticking along”, he says.

Sanitarium’s maintenance team worked with Tronics to design the system’s specifications, and Tronics and Sanitarium carried out the installation and commissioning. Tricky aspects included the dusty ambient environment and linking up a PLC with the Videojet.

Thoresen reports that the installation was quick and efficient, and Tronics’ overall service was excellent. “We may now order a second Focus S25 for another production line”, he says, “and we’re interested in a Videojet Dataflex overprint coder”.

Laser coding systems in the Videojet Focus range include 10 and 25 Watt models. Both feature clear, permanent, high-resolution codes, simple user interface with user-definable security levels, and dual printhead capability.

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