CASE STUDY
Giant Jones Brewing Company
Giant Jones Brewing Company is an independent, woman-owned brewery in Madison, Wisconsin. As Wisconsin’s only certified organic brewery, their team needed to improve and automate their bottling and canning line. The existing label applicator and conveyor did not add the bottled date and ABV to the labels. The Giant Jones Brewing team was handwriting this data onto each label.
CHALLENGES
The biggest challenge was finding a solution that consistently printed bottle dates and ABV onto the small blank space on each label. Presenting the blank space to the printhead for printing would be difficult to do repeatedly. There were other limitations with label and ink requirements. Labels had to be made of a poly material with removable adhesive to use with returnable bottles. The line also needed fast-dry ink for nonporous substrates that would not transfer to conveyor guides or label rollers. Overall, label readability was essential!
SOLUTIONS
The Abbott Company presented a TIJ and CIJ printer sample for Giant Jones Brewing to review. After an onsite product demonstration, they purchased the SmartJet Pro Thermal Inkjet Printer featuring black, fast-dry alcohol-based ink. During the demo, the Abbott team recommended using an encoder wheel to allow the printer to adjust the labeler speed automatically. A gap sensor photocell was also recommended to increase print cycle accuracy.
RESULTS
The Smart Jet Pro Printer created high-resolution, fully formed characters with excellent contrast for easy end-user readability. With this thermal printer solution, Giant Jones Brewing can now create professionally designed labels similar in style to preprinted labels. Now, every bottle and can has a crisp, clear, and accurate bottled date and ABV.
262.522.3222 | abbottcompany.net
