Multiple Label sizes
Hello,
We are a manufacturing business with 4 different label sizes. Currently we have a single printer in which we switch out reels however, the printer recalibrates and we are losing labels.
Does anyone else have multiple label sizes and if so how do you manage this? Is it a case of us having 4 printers (one for each label size) or can this be worked around using BarTender and a more modern printer? Also would 4 printers = 4 licenses?
Thanks an advance for any advice!
George
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Is it a Zebra printer you are using? The default setting for those it to perform a quick calibration when the printhead is locked back down (and the Pause released) but you can turn that action off in the Front Panel settings of the unit,. The location of this maybe different for different models but you may find it in somewhere like System > Settings > Head Close Action.
If you do disable this I would suggest that the users feed a blank label after the printer is back on line so that it will hopefully pick up the gap automatically, without the need for a quick calibration as if not the first label that is printed is likely to start printing in the wrong starting position.
If that doesn't work then you may need to look about using multiple printers using different stock in each but as you say that would also require 4 printer licences.
EDIT: The print works in this way so that it knows where the start of the next blank label is so as to print the label objects in the correct position. With this disabled occasionally you may find that the printer cannot find the gap and so a calibrate is required. If so I would suggest you leave the power on calibrate enabled and cycle the power of the printer to force it to perform the calibration. This depends on your labels and sizes but I would not expect it would need this all the time, and maybe not at all, but it is something to bear in mind
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Hi Peter,
Thanks for the reply! We have tried this and it isn’t working very well.
In your opinion, how do businesses handle multiple label sizes regarding their software and printer resources? Hypothetically, if we had 50 label sizes, would it be expected that we have 50 printers and 50 software licenses?
As I said previously, we are using one printer currently and P-touch (which is poor) hence the requirement for BarTender. We will print say 100 labels for one device, and then switch to a different label size for the next batch. As we do this and the machine recalibrates it wastes 5-8 labels each time.
I am quite new to manufacturing so I am trying to get my head around the most cost effective and efficient process.
Thanks!
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Companies deal with it in different ways. I have found a number of companies have tried to rationalise their label stocks and reduce the number of sizes they use as this may result in lower costs overall as economies of scale may kick in. Clearly this isnt possible in all circumstances/situations where different size products/cartons etc. can govern what size of label needs to be used as can the industry involved and the labelling regulations in force.
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