Case Study: Av-ve-co

ADDED FLEXIBILITY: Au-ve-co Fastens Itself to Print-and-Apply Labeler

Print-and-apply machine labels knocked-down folding cartons used for Au-ve-co’s automotive repair parts. The machine adds printing flexibility, meets growing volume needs, and reduces maintenance and changeover time.

Customer

Au-ve-co Products, Covington, KY, produces fasteners and automotive collision repair parts, in weights from 2 oz to 2 lb. The parts are not sold at retail, but rather to body shops and repair centers.

Problem

Tabletop printers printed labels that were then hand-applied to cartons. For some higher-volume products, Au-ve-co relied on imprinters that used rubber plates to directly imprint knocked-down cartons. “The rubber plates did not last very long, and they took time to maintain,” Joseph Hohe, the company’s vice president of operations, recalls.

“We had to pull plates off the machine and clean them because we had problems with the inks,” he adds. “On top of that, we do changeovers two or three times a day. Each takes an operator five to 10 minutes to do. We could not keep going the way we were. We could not keep up with growing production requirements. We also could not address requirements to provide good bar codes and the amount of product information we wanted.”

Solution

With the addition of a print-and-apply labeler, Au-ve-co Products can now print product information and bar codes that its previous printing machinery could not. The information is printed onto labels that are then automatically applied to knocked-down folding cartons that will be later erected and filled with the company’s automotive parts.

The new equipment from Paragon Labeling Systems (White Bear Lake, MN) helps Au-ve-co meet ever-increasing sales volume, while reducing maintenance and changeover time by 10%.

The Paragon unit produces labels for about 12,000 cartons a day, running at speeds to 60/min. It’s become an essential tool for Au-ve-co. And its small 5’L x 4’W footprint takes up little space.

Exerpts from PACKWORLD.COM (July 2001). To read full article Click Here.