Application:
Marking of continuous cast steel at 230° C

The user

numbers among the leading European manufacturers of steel, sheet metal and pipes. The range comprises round cast steel for seamless pipes, forged and long products as well as continuous cast slabs.

Initial situation

Previously, barcode labels out of self-adhesive foil were used which were printed in a dot-matrix print process. However, due to the poor contrast of the print image, there were considerable problems regarding the legibility. For this reason the slabs were very difficult to identify, particularly in the next processing stage.

Solution form ELTEX

ELTEX had to consider the following aspects in its search for a solution to the task set: Besides a heat-resistance capability of 230° Celsius, a barcode with a high contrast quality and long service life was needed. Additionally, it should be a barcode that could be imprinted locally in the production facility on robust, industrial printers.

A ELTEX TOP SCRIPT heat-resistant, sandwich foil structure with a special surface quality to enable thermal transfer printing was used as a base material.

The imprinted labels are attached by operatives to the front end of the still very hot steel slabs. The label is attracted more or less ‘automatically’ on to the slab. This means that absolutely reliable bonding is achieved.

The detailed marking of the continuous cast steel parts guarantees a smooth logistics operation and exact identification both at the manufacturer as well as at the converter.

Additional advantage

The weathering-resistant labels can even withstand long sea transportation passages without any fading of the print image.