TPI May 2013

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.

The non-contact inkjet printing system is able to print high quality text and graphics

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.

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.

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.

samuel strapping systems – Canada www.samuelstrapping.com

dynaflex Pipe Technologies ltd – Canada www.dynaflexpipe.com

The system allows Dynaflex to brand its products with a consistently crisp