The Label Printers, a manufacturer of custom labels and packaging headquartered in Aurora, IL, USA, has acquired a BST Promark Shark 4000 LEX 100 percent inspection system. The system can detect misregisters, color variations and hazing, dirty print, smudges, scratches, splashes and spots, web creases and wrinkles, hairs, diecut variations and incorrect matrix removal, reverse type fill-in, and most streaks and debris.

“In addition to substantially increasing our ability to detect print defects, the Shark system will enable us to run our equipment faster than our current system does,” says Plant Superintendent Tom Erickson.

Lori Campbell, chief of operations, says, “We’re very proud of our workforce and the care and attention they give to our quality – which our ISO Registration and 99.6 percent quality rating back up. But I’m equally proud that our manufacturing team was actively looking for ways to make our quality better and give us that all-important competitive edge, with equipment that makes us better able to keep our processes in control and capable – a hallmark of Continuous Quality Improvement environments.”

“This is a real selling tool for us,” adds Erickson. “Now we can offer our customers and prospective customers 100 percent inspection without relying on the human eye. In the future it could be used for authenticating serialized labels and bar code verification. It’s got great potential in variable printing – which gets bigger for us all the time.”

The Label Printers owns and operates two facilities in Aurora, manufacturing and distributing labels and packaging products to customers in 25 countries. It is a member of the North American Security Products Organization, the Coalition Against Counterfeiting and Piracy, the Tag and Label Manufacturers Institute, and the Flexographic Technical Association.