TTO Installation: Will A New One Fit My Line?

The objection that stops most TTO replacements is not price. It is doubt about whether the new machine will actually work on the line it is going onto.

That doubt is reasonable. A coder is not a standalone box. It sits in a mount somebody specified years ago, prints at a position somebody set for a pack that may since have changed, and talks to equipment that was commissioned around it.

Here is how that gets answered before anyone commits to anything.

The printer is rarely the hard part

A SmartDate^® TTO is a known quantity. What varies from site to site is everything around it.

Three things determine whether a swap is straightforward or not, and none of them is the printer itself.

Mounting and bracketry

This is the single biggest variable. If the existing unit sits on a standard bracket at a standard print position, a like-for-like swap is genuinely simple.

Where it gets longer is when the original install was bespoke, when the mount was fabricated on site, or when the print position needs to move because the pack format has changed since the machine went in.

None of those is a blocker. They change how long the line is down, and that is worth knowing in advance rather than discovering on the day. It is the first thing we look at.

Line speed and print window

The question is not top speed on a data sheet. It is whether the print window on your line is long enough for the code you need at the resolution you need it.

A small date code at low resolution has different requirements to a full 2D code with batch and origin data. On an intermittent line the pack is stationary during printing. On a continuous line it is not, and the print window is a function of your line speed.

That is arithmetic, not guesswork, and it gets done before a quote goes out.

Your code layouts

The worry here is usually unspoken: that somebody will have to sit down and rebuild every code layout by hand, and that an operator will get one wrong.

Date formats, batch codes, barcodes and 2D codes are rebuilt in CoLOS^® Designer rather than re-typed at the machine. What printed on Friday prints the same on Monday, in the same position, at the same size.

If you run regulated product, that matters more than the printer specification does.

Integration with what is already there

Most lines have a checkweigher, a vision system, a metal detector or a labeller that the coder shares signals with. A replacement has to fit that conversation, not just the bracket.

Trigger signals, print-go inputs and any handshake with existing equipment are part of the survey, not an afterthought once the machine is on site.

Four things we need to know to answer it:

1. The make and model on the line now, or a photograph of it if the plate is unreadable.
2. What it prints onto, and whether that is the only format on that line.
3. Line speed, and whether the line is intermittent or continuous.
4. A photograph of the mount, which answers more questions than any specification does.

That is usually enough to say whether a swap is straightforward, and to be specific about what it would involve if it is not.

The honest version

Some lines are awkward. A machine that has been in place for fifteen years, on a mount that was fabricated for it, printing at a position that suited a pack format nobody runs any more, is not a fifteen minute job.

What we can commit to is telling you that before you commit to anything, rather than after the old unit is in a van.

The offer

Through to the end of September, M Pack is taking any older TTO off the line and replacing it with a new Markem-Imaje SmartDate^® at a competitive price. All brands taken, any age, any condition, and we collect the old unit.

We looked at what a modern machine is tested to print onto in why your substrate matters more than your printer.