Bottle Labeling Machine and Bottle Labeling Equipment

A bottle labeling machine is often the first move toward medium to large volume production capacity. Many bottled consumer products start their journey in small kitchens or laboratories or even garages. As the brainchild of an entrepreneur who has something with a competitive edge or something to fill a gap in the market, the transition from a product they personally love to a product everybody loves involves a production and packaging journey.

This article focuses on the packaging journey where production constraints need to be overcome to be able to offer the product in volume. As a product begins its packaging journey, first impressions on the shelves of stores and in front of buyers can decide the longevity of that product, independent of how good the product really is for its intended real life application. The packaging has to be right and the look needs to be consistent. The bottle neck in production for many starting out is often the bottle labeling. Self-adhesive labels look great on the designers screen and on mock-up bottles; translating this concept and look onto thousands of bottles is a mind boggling task for those given the task of manual label application. The eye is incredibly accurate and picks up variations in label height, alignment, bubbles, creases and label misalignment or unwanted angles.
If you ever get to talk to an entrepreneur who began production of their product manually there will almost always be a less than fond recollection of the daunting task of applying the labels and just how painstaking that task in the production can be.

The cost of labeling a bottle without an automatic label applicator far exceeds the cost of the label in terms of the manual labor, the compromise in product uniformity and the reduced capacity to fulfill unexpected or urgent market expanding orders.
An industrial labeling system or label applicator can make a world of difference and represents an investment that could typically range between USD13,000 and USD80,000 depending on the versatility of equipment required and the complexity of the bottle shape and label(s) placement requirements. The LabelOn™ labeling systems have two ranges of bottle labeling machines, where the Basic range provides low end more dedicated equipment and the Modular range provides versatility to cover a wide variety of applications and quickly change between those applications.

The labeling equipment will usually consist of a product conveyor, label dispenser(s) and various measures to hold or guide the bottle during the labeling process. Typical lengths of machinery are 2.4 meters to 3.0 meters or 7 feet 10 inches to 9 feet 10 inches. The machines are often supplied with castors for rolling short distances on flat floors and the machines can be set to label empty bottles or full bottles.
If the bottle labeling machine is your first machine, LabelOn™ usually recommend you consider placing the machine in your production process to label the products empty. Empty bottles avoid the potential for spilled product on the machine. Labeling accuracy is all about how well a product and its label are controlled during the labeling process, so the cleaner the machine the more consistent you can expect your bottle to be labelled.

Often machine suppliers refer to a label applicator as a labeling system. There are good reason for this as this type of machine essentially comprises of systems with functions that work together to achieve accurate labeling.

Functions on a label applicator include the control of the products and the control of the labels:

Product Control functions can include:
Moving
Aligning
Spacing
Spinning
Capturing
Speed Matching
Detection

To achieve these product control functions the sub systems of the labeling machine can include:
A Product Conveyor
Guide Rails
Product Spacers or Scrolls
Aligning Chains
Overhead Clamp Down Conveyors
Wrap Conveyors
Pneumatic Capture Devices

Label Control functions can include:
Label Monitoring (For missing labels or for End of label rolls)
Visual label verification
Starting the label feed (Here a system is waiting for a signal to advise of the presence of a product)
Accelerating the label
Speed Matching the label
Wiping
Pressing
Gap Sensing
Decelerating the label
Stopping the label
Stamping or marking the label
Backing Paper Rewind
Zero Down Time label head management

To achieve these label control functions the sub systems of the labeling machine can include:

A Label Head fitted with Sensors
Product Sensors
Label Sensors
Visual recognition
Machine Controls and settings
Brushes, Rollers, Clamps or Wipers
Batch Coders
Power Feed modules that hold extra-large rolls of labels and provide a loose loop of labels for the label heads

A Labeling System is only as good as the way it is designed to function as a whole. With so many different functions and subsystems a well thought out system will have centralised, minimised, synchronised machine settings. The ideal labeling machine should be a bit like an advanced SLR camera with Automatic mode. There are so many variables with labeling products that at times it will be useful to call upon some “manual settings”.

LabelOn™ offer two levels of labeling systems.

The LabelOn™ Basic is for the very budget conscious looking for quality entry-level labeling equipment.
Continuing the camera analogy, this level of equipment is like having a good quality automatic companct camera.
The LabelOn™ Basic is also a good option for those with less product change-overs. There is a compact range of core quality sub-systems available to configure this range of equipment.

The LabelOn™ Modular is the advanced SLR camera of the Label applicator world with incredible label focus (accuracy), precise automatic settings and advanced manual settings.
The LabelOn™ Modular offers an advanced and beautifully integrated combination of sub-systems enabling a very well-priced and tailored label applicator machine to be configured to a large range of jobs.

This level of labeling equipment is designed for versatility and quick change-overs that are facilitated by clear reference markings, rulers and memorised machine settings.
The electronics layout and the mechanical layout along with the readily available records are designed for both local and remote technical and service support.