Industrial serial adhesive label printers?

I have a production scheduling manager who's been bugging me to add label printers to all the machines in my dept. He wants to be able to have each operator push a button and have a self-adhesive label pop out that can be attached to the paper work for each roll of stock that's produced. All they want on the label is the number of yards of stock. Sounds easy enough, but I will end up with about 40 of these printers, so I want to make sure I pick good hardware. I'm using PLC5-30, and SLC5/04 processors, with PV550, PV1000, and RSView32 HMI's. The machines produce from 25 to 125 rolls of stock per 12 hour shift. I think it would be best to use the serial port on the HMIs to connect to the printer. A couple of machines don't yet have an HMI, so the PLC serial port will have to be used. Anyway, my main question is where can I find a high quality, self-adhesive label printer with serial input options? I don't want to become a printer repair man!

Thanks
Paul C.

I like Sato printers, very durable but may be expensive for you projects. You can also get applicators that will print and apply the label.
http://www.satoamerica.com/

Another good industrial unit is Zebra: http://www.zebra.com/id/zebra/na/en/index.html

Paul:

You may want to start out by either searching the Internet for "Bar code label printers" or start at this site: (a magazine covering automated data capture technologies)
http://www.frontlinetoday.com/frontline/

(BTW, I worked for this magazine in a former life, but it's not a pay-for subscription magazine, so I don't think it violates Phil's advertising rules).

Some of the companies that I remember manufacturing label printers that are suitable for industrial use (or office use, depending on where the printers are used) include Sato America, Datamax, and Zebra Technologies.

Hope this gets you on the right track...

Rick

(I see rsdoran beat me to one of my suggestions... Foiled again!! )

Zebra manufactures good Bar Code printers that can be used otherwise. I've recently used a Red Lion panel mount printer that seemed "Ok", and I've been told about the AP1200 found at http://www.curcomp.com/ap1200.asp not idea of it's quality though.

Companies we use that we fibnd reliable are Intermec (expensive) and datamax the I class printers are nearly trouble free.

Can you make it print xxxx too?

Paul, I also use Zebra printers for this type of application, but I would urge you to consider to do some future design capability. I originally started off just printing a number that was stored in the plc. Soon, the project graduated and now I use ethernet to send quantity, unique barcode, manufacture date, expiration date, shift no., QA instructions, location destination, and a few others I can't remember off the top of my head. Of course, it actually gets the data from a PC and the PC gets some of the data from the PLC. I know that this isn't what was being asked, but if you can at least get a printer with some future capabilities, you will be prepared for the next set of wishes from the production scheduling manager and the QA manager and the plant manager and etc.

Bruce, you're right about this being a baby-step, perhaps in the wrong direction. We already have barcode printers attached to a plant LAN that is totally separate from our PLC networks. The operators type in the "carrier #" to a custom (read ancient) program and the printer spits out a card with product type code and a barcode. They then fasten it to each roll of stock. At the end of each 12 hour shift, they manually scan every barcode on the production floor and assume the length of each roll is the average, to totalize inventories.

Adding a label to the card that shows stock length isn't going to help much, except that the guy who scans the in-process inventory will have to record those numbers manually, and someone will have a new full-time job doing data entry on all of them.

I have suggested for years that we create a database that could link the data available in the PLC to the data that already exists for these barcodes. What should really happen, is that we permanently attach barcodes to the stock carriers, have the operator scan it when loaded, and let the PLC fill the database as stock is produced. The machines that consume the stock could decrement the associated length value as stock is used. This would produce an automatic real-time inventory system and solve a half dozen other problems with our current methods.

Well, to do that here would require involvement of corporate programmers and everyone in our local IT department. The goal of this project is to improve our inventory effectiveness. Currently, we manually track the stock in our plant. If there is a full roll, we assume it has the average number of yard of stock in it. They want to add a bunch of printers and continue with this manual method of tracking. It's funny, they have million$ in computer hardware, and we rely on a printed barcode label that someone has to scan every 12 hours (times hundreds of rolls) to keep track of what we've got in process!

Anyway, I'm getting off the subject. If I can convince them that the printer thing is gonna cost big bucks and cause too many headaches, it will buy me time to get a hold of the right person in management to listen to my ideas. Often, when they hear something that departs radically from the current way of doing things, they simply block it out of the realm of possibilities. You can't convince them how good it could be unless you do it for them, then show them the results. This is somenthing I can't whip out by myself in a couple of days, so I have to force the issue to get it done right.

In the meantime, I'll send e-mails to the vendors you all have suggested and throw that bone to the production manager, so he'll have something to tell his boss.

If I know how things usually work here, I'll be installing printers all summer anyway...As long a I keep getting a paycheck, I'll keep doing as I'm told...

Paul C.

Paul, as a last thing to consider, we have moved another leap forward on some things (my company loves high tech stuff). Our material carts now have RFID tags and when the material is put on the cart, the tag actually gets the information written to it. Now all the data is stored real time in each cart. Each consumer machine then reads the tags and updates material usage on the tag (if partial reel consumption). It can then be moved and stored somewhere for later use.

Paul,

I'll second some of the suggestions out there - Zebra and Datamax.

While you can certainly control them from the PLC, I'd recommend the same approach that Bruce suggested - using a PC to do the interface to the bar code printer. Unless you have a really straightforward algorithm for defining your roll numbers and every label "looks the same", it will be a bear to change things with the PLC.

With a PC, it is (relatively) easy to program in complicated algorithms for defining the roll numbers, and if the label format is product specific, that can be easily programmed as well for a dynamic label based on what product is actually being run . . .


Good luck,

Marc

Adding a label to the card that shows stock length isn't going to help much, except that the guy who scans the in-process inventory will have to record those numbers manually, and someone will have a new full-time job doing data entry on all of them.

I have suggested for years that we create a database that could link the data available in the PLC to the data that already exists for these barcodes. What should really happen, is that we permanently attach barcodes to the stock carriers, have the operator scan it when loaded, and let the PLC fill the database as stock is produced. The machines that consume the stock could decrement the associated length value as stock is used. This would produce an automatic real-time inventory system and solve a half dozen other problems with our current methods.

This is a very good method as it eliminates operator error. Which is an inherent problem in any inventory system. An olternative method if your boss is dead set on a seperate barcode is to purchase pregenerated barcode numbers. place that barcode onto the completed stock via an applicator, scan the barcode then have the PLC associate the barcode number(sequence label) with the length. Then enter that value onto the database. Then as the stock is used scan the sequence label then enter a button designating that it is used. This way your dealing with one printer to make the sequence label rolls or you can buy pregenerated labels. a couple of additional handscanners, some applicators. programming and training.

I also use Zebra printers, but only with Visual Basic or Microsoft Access.
How do you print using PLC only?
Can you print without using Windows fonts?

Some, maybe all, of the Zebra and Sato printers can use ASCII thru a serial connection using a null modem cable.

They also make stand alone printers but it seems you want to use the HMI/PLC to send the roll length to the printer.
http://satoamerica.com/HT200e/27

If I read the application correctly the PLC will know the length of each roll and you want a label printed stating length. I have actually done that in a re-wind process where the rolls were different lengths so they needed to measure it while rewinding then print a label showing the roll length.

OkiePC said:

We already have barcode printers attached to a plant LAN that is totally separate from our PLC networks. The operators type in the "carrier #" to a custom (read ancient) program and the printer spits out a card with product type code and a barcode.

Click to expand...

I don't know how relevant this is, but you reminded me of a similar situation I was involved in a few years ago. One of our customers was packaging a specific quantity of items in a box. The existing operation required the operator to manually scan each item with a bar code reader, then press the "F8" key on a PC keyboard to print a label for the box. The system used a custom (again, read "ancient") inventory program (running in DOS) to keep track of what items were associated with the box label.

This required an operator to 'live' at the machine. We were contracted to build a machine to automatically group items into quantities that went in one box (i.e. 10 items per box), and accumulate these groups. This way, the operator only had to come every so often to box up the accumulated groups. We mounted a stationary bar code reader to read each item as it passed, and grouped the items in the required quantity.

The problem we ran into is that the inventory software would stop reading bar codes when the box quantity was reached. It would not start a new box until AFTER the box label was printed, which required pressing the F8 key. I requested that the software be modified to automatically print a label when the box quantity was reached.

Here's where we hit a roadblock. Corporate management in France refused to allow ANY software change in the inventory program. Okay, so how could we somehow press the F8 key automatically? A solenoid to whack the key came to mind, but I found a much better solution. I installed THIS keyboard encoder (wedge) between the keyboard and PC to 'press' F8 via a relay contact from the PLC. Worked perfectly!...

That customer is now using these keyboard encoders all over the place, circumventing management's refusal to make a simple software change...



-Eric

I've used the Zebra printers in several applications with great results. I've set up some pretty intricate formats, done barcodes, and included graphics. All of this was done straight from the PLC, so a PC isn't really necessary.

How do you do bar codes & graphics with a plc?

I really don't have a clue.