From the 1st January 2004 it will be compulsory for producers of Class ‘A’ eggs within the EU to code their eggs with their new unique 9-digit farm code. This is in addition to the information on egg packaging and any text or logos that is currently being coded onto eggs such as ‘best before’ dates.
EU Commission recommendations indicated that the farm code can be applied either by producers themselves or at packing stations. So printing the new code may prove to be a fairly straightforward exercise where eggs are already being coded at packing stations, and where the existing printer can be modified to add an additional line.
Unfortunately this will not help producers who pack some or all of their eggs for direct sale or supply to retailers, and whose eggs are not currently being coded.
The decision on what sort of printer to buy will need to be made soon so producers can begin coding when the new legislation takes effect. Here follow some guidelines to help with evaluating the options available.
Hand-stamping: only likely to suit the very small producer as this will be highly labour intensive.
“Bubble Jet” type printers: this type of printer is based on technology used for small business and home-use printers. They are likely to be suitable for mainly manual packing operations where a printing station can be easily set up, either running egg trays under the print head by hand or on a conveyor. Models with multiple printing heads are available that can cope with large numbers of eggs per hour.
For the larger more mechanised packers however, whilst the lower up-front printer costs might appeal, these types of printers are unlikely to be suitable either because print speed of each individual printing head is too slow or because they cannot be easily integrated with the existing packers. In addition, they lack robustness and can be unreliable in egg-packing environments.
Continuous Ink Jet printing (CIJ): these fully automatic non-contact printers are based on tried and trusted industrial printing technology that is used to apply ‘best before’ and batch codes to billions of products every day all over the world. They are designed to be robust and reliable in the factory environment and will easily print at speeds of up to 50,000 eggs per hour if required. CIJ printers are ideal for integrating onto mechanical egg packing lines and will cope with variations in distance between the egg and the printhead to print fast-drying, consistently readable codes therefore minimising the possibility of rejection due to poor quality codes.
Some CIJ printers can be sensitive to temperature and humidity variation and are not designed for the short runs typical of egg packing. So whilst it is possible to purchase existing industrial inkjet printer models, they may not prove reliable in non-factory packing environments. In addition, they may well contain a lot of unnecessary features that could make them complicated to use.
However, other CIJ printers such as the Linx 6800EC, have been specifically designed with egg producers and packers in mind.
The 6800EC was developed out of Linx’s extensive experience as the leading CIJ printer supplier to Dutch egg farmers who already print a farm identification code onto eggs destined for export.
The 6800EC was designed to tolerate short print runs and can easily cope with variations in temperature and humidity, so it is ideally suited to printing the farm-code. Up to 3-lines of text or logos are also options.
A key benefit of the 6800EC is its ease of use because its features include trouble-free single button start and stop control, automatic ink shut-off in the event of power failure, full size keyboard and WYSIWYG display. In addition, it requires minimum manual cleaning which in turn minimises cleaning solvent usage and helps avoid delays on the packing line.
The new Linx 6800EC has straightforward running costs with no hidden extras and does not use ink heaters or external air supplies so that the risk of breakdown is reduced. Furthermore, the printer is designed to meet the variable service intervals appropriate to egg producers.
The 6800EC is supported by an all-inclusive customer service package from Linx, including full on-site training and machine installation, on-going support, and access to the customer service help line.
