products & developments
Indent printing of plastic pipe
Samuel Strapping Systems, a Canadian
supplier of industrial packaging and
shipping solutions, partnered with
Dynaflex Pipe Technologies Ltd to
replace an antiquated indent printer that
was used to mark extruded HDPE pipe
with manufacturing and product details.
Dynaflex Pipe, a manufacturer of HDPE
pipe and high performance composite
pipe for the oil and gas, mining, industrial
and municipal water industry, contacted
Samuel Strapping Systems looking for a
marking system that would provide print
and graphics of the same quality as the
products they produce.
Dynaflex realised that newer, proven
technologies were available that could
eliminate the setbacks from older
technology indent printers such as the
ones they had been using, which used a
colour ribbon with a heated print wheel
to transfer the image to the pipe.
The print ribbon for this setup needed to
be changed every 10,000 ft; print blocks
had to be changed by hand, and it took
up to 15 minutes to change a complete
print string.
Shawn Hove, quality control manager
for Dynaflex Pipe, commented, “This
process of heat, pressure, moving parts
and rollers not only required increased
maintenance but was a safety hazard
for operators due to the numerous
finger pinch points and hot surfaces
that regularly needed to be serviced due
to ribbon changes and alterations to the
print string.”
The coding and labelling division of
Samuel Strapping Systems provided
Dynaflex Pipe with a non-contact
pipe marking solution that produced
high quality text and graphics, quick
and simple print string changes and
maintenance, plus a bulk ink system.
The system allows Dynaflex to brand
its products with a consistently crisp
and clear company name and logo.
The product details printed on the pipe
can now include variable data such as
metre marks complete with a counter
value for the length. Changing print
strings can be completed in one minute
by simply selecting a pre-determined
message, and operators no longer
need to handle very small, heated print
blocks, which were time consuming
and easy to drop and lose. The bulk ink
system means that consumables last
for several weeks on a fill, rather than
hours or days.
samuel strapping systems
– Canada
dynaflex Pipe Technologies ltd
–
Canada
The non-contact inkjet printing
system is able to print high
quality text and graphics
