Headquartered in Emmingen, in the Southern German region of Baden Württemberg, Atlantic Zeiser manages eleven facilities overseas and its products are distributed in 50 different countries thanks to a network of sales agents and service partners.
The company operates worldwide with the Card Systems and Banknotes divisions, set to address the banking and finance sector, and with the Packaging division that develops specific solutions for the pharmaceutical and cosmetics industries. Focused on the track and trace and digital printing most innovative systems, the latter of these has recently introduced a new entry in its world-renown Digiline product portfolio. Designed in order to meet the pharma segment’s most rigorous requirements, Digiline Booklet is an integrated system aimed at coding up to 4 millimeters thick booklet labels in an audit-proof process that can constantly be verified by an inspection camera. Able to ensure economic efficiency even with the shortest print runs and with completely different booklet formats, Digiline Booklet was developed for coding all those labels that are to be used in clinical drug trials.
Atlantic Zeiser believes the request for such technologies is about to rocket, together with international regulations and safety requirements that, increasing with time, will force the industry and laboratories to adopt thicker booklet labels to include a constantly growing number of mandatory information and contents. According to the German producer, «thermal transfer printers are no longer able to process the peaks and troughs associated with booklet labels» and this could cause serious problems since «printing defects can jeopardize not only market authorization and substantial investments, but also human lives». This is also one of the reasons why Atlantic Zeiser chose to leverage the contactless drop-on-demand inkjet technology, that can allow the Digiline Booklet to achieve an enhanced print quality and consistency, regardless of such issues as the font size, whilst on the other hand reducing operating cost by eliminating ink ribbons and print bars. A patented sensor-controlled transport system ensures that «the first incoming label of the roll is printed without any additional splicing of blank ribbon», as the Emmingen-based firm stated, and this way «no blank labels can enter circulation, auxiliary tapes and working time are avoided, and expensive label waste is ruled out». An excellent print quality is also guaranteed in case of machine stops, while an integrated camera was specifically designed for an in-depth inspection of all the processed labels. «Furthermore», Atlantic Zeiser added, «a side register camera compensates the sidewise print position of each individual label and thus contributes to precise sidewise pint accuracy», despite any possible inaccurate label positioning on the ribbon. Finally, thanks to a special ultrasound sensor, the recently released Digiline Booklet can easily process fully transparent or semi-transparent labels, which turns into another differentiating element in comparison with a wide variety of traditional thermal transfer printers; and the suitable label stock ranges include, as the company pointed out, PE, PET and PVC film, together with paper. An accidental detachment of booklet labels during the production process is avoided and prevented by «gentle feed-over large guide rollers», tailored to the various label formats available.