Selling labels for a few decades I’ve seen many different types of label applications, but I was in awe of this recent discovery. In fact my exact words were “wow that is a beast”.
Mostly packed in bags G W Ballard (also known as Stud Farm Fruit) have been making toffee and chocolate apples for nearly 30 years but now needed a label to be used on a clam shell pack for Lidl. In fact lots of labels with face and adhesive print. The label would also seal the two halves of the pack. No problem for Acorn Labels. The artwork was being designed for the pack so delivery could be tight. Again, no problem for Acorn Labels. However, when I asked about the application, the spec seemed to get unusually complicated. It wasn’t until I saw the machine that packed the apples that I realised the answer was good old fashioned imperial engineering.
The conveyor was built in the 70’s by Made in Tennessee. No sensors or complicated electronics here. A chain driven belt of metal templates held the clam pack, closed it and applied the labels with a sprocket gear. The whole line moved in modules of 4 inches and pulled the labels along in sprockets of 1/8 of an inch to match one label with one clam pack. I married up the label to match 3 ½ inches within the template and added one edge strip of sprocket holes to a thicker liner. By keeping the centre of the sprocket hole to leading edge of the label and keeping a half inch gap between the labels, I travelled back in time and watched how labels were applied decades ago.
Although interesting for me it was actually too slow to cope with the bulk of orders in such a short selling season of Halloween and Bonfire Night. Next year there will be a modern label applicator attached to increase efficiency and cost. The rest of the production was interesting too, so I took some videos.”