FDBusiness.com

BD Foods, based in St Leonards-on-Sea in Sussex, has taken delivery of a Thermocode 107M thermal transfer printer from Open Date Equipment, to print specific product information onto pouches containing its range of chutneys, sauces, dressings and soups. The Thermocode, which is mounted on a new pouch filling line, was acquired to replace an existing printer, bought in 2010, which was proving unreliable. BD Foods is expanding rapidly so needed continuity of production.

Open Date, which already supplies the company with thermal transfer ribbons for all printers used on-site, responded by lending BD a Thermocode machine to help maintain supplies for customers in the food service wholesale, restaurant, pub, hotel and airline catering sectors. This trial proved so successful the company purchased a new model.

Chief Engineer at BD Foods, Mike Beresford explains, “Our pouches are generic in colour, style and brand. They need product information, such as ingredients, allergy and storage advice, barcodes, date and batch codes printed on them prior to filling. They are all hot filled, but can also be frozen later, so the printing needs to withstand extremes of temperature. “

He adds: “To date the Thermocode has proved capable of meeting all our requirements and has been very reliable. In addition it has been easy to train our operators to use both the hardware and software supplied. Any minor problems have been sorted out via the telephone technical back-up service, which has proved spot on.”

The printer’s ability to generate ‘best before’ dates, batch codes and Julian codes has virtually eliminated human error when inputting data, according to the company.

The Thermocode 107M has a maximum print area of 106.6mm x 106.6mm. It can print variable data to 300dpi quality at 450 cycles per minute or 400mm per second. The ribbon length is 500m. For further information contact Open Date on Tel  +44 (0)20 8655 4999, Email sales@opendate.co.uk or visit www.opendate.co.uk.