Industry:
Cranes, Conveyors
Application:
Component marking of vehicle-mounted and slewing tower cranes
The user
are manufacturers as well as suppliers of vehicle-mounted and slewing tower cranes with several international production locations.
Initial situation
To identify, document, trace and assemble cranes, the time-consuming and costly method of welding-on steel sheet plates should be replaced by a more cost-favourable alternative. Moreover, the new method should protect the print image against corrosion since in the past the inscription could often no longer be identified, something which made easy allocation quite impossible.
Various markings are required for steel component parts and welded sub-assemblies. The imprinting is effected both in the manufacturing facility of the user as well as at the suppliers of the steel components.
An economic solution combined with simple handling and faultless documentation is therefore imperative, even in the case of small batches.
Marking is always implemented before the final coating phase i.e. the marking has to be clearly legible even after two coating processes.
Solution from ELTEX
High-quality UV and weathering-resistant self-adhesive foils are necessary in order to satisfy the extreme demands placed on the marking of construction and building materials machinery: guaranteed, unmistakeable traceability for a period of at least ten years.
A silver-coloured, high-performance foil is used today, a foil that is printed in a thermal transfer printing process. The print image is protected by a transparent, self-adhesive laminate whose UV absorbers shield the print image long-term and reliably against any fading.
The labels are equipped additionally with two paint protection laminates to enable identification after the coating process at the suppliers as well as the subsequent final coating phase at the crane manufacturer. ELTEX Products: TOP PROTECT 3 in 1, ELTEX 7500
Both after the first as well as the second coating process, one removable foil is simply removed on each occasion with the help of a practical handy tap. This means that the imprint beneath is once again visible.
The main benefits:
- Reliable identification, documentation and traceability against the background of product liability
- Enormous cost reduction with self-adhesive foil labels
- Legible and distinct marking of components over the entire service life without any corrosion
- Two paint protection layers to accommodate two coating processes
- Economic marking system for small and large batch sizes
- Label material has proven itself in outdoor applications for 10 years
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Additional advantage
The label printing system ELTEX 7500 proved to be the most economic solution for the serials manufacture of larger batch sizes at the user. In this respect the self-adhesive, silver foil is individually imprinted in a single working cycle, surface-protected with a paint protection laminate and subsequently die-cut to the required format.
The suppliers use customized labels made out of the same material – TOP PROTECT 4 in 1 range – for smaller batch sizes. After thermal transfer printing, the print-protecting laminate layer including the two paint protection layers are then simply folded onto the printed foil label and pressed on.
ELTEX thus underlines its position as an innovative partner for marking technologies, providing economic solutions both for small as well as larger batch sizes. |
