Keg labeling automation & yellow ink provide new frontier for brewers
Kegging remains an important way to transport mass volumes of beer and cider around the country, as well as providing a key route to the pub and bar market for brewers in the United Kingdom. The British Beer and Pub Association estimate that kegs replace approximately 7.5 billion bottles or cans in the UK every year. Kegs therefore ensure that the industry is able to continue to provide a sustainable and environmentally-friendly way of transporting mass liquid volumes between breweries and pubs, bars and hospitality venues. However the BBPA also estimate that the loss and misuse of kegs cost the industry over £50 million per annum too.
This backdrop, and the resulting brewery demand for a traceability solution, means Domino has devised an automated keg labeling solution. This assists larger breweries in the retention and reusability of existing kegs. Several UK breweries have invested in this technology to drive operational efficiencies on their keg lines and eliminate the need for manual labeling of kegs by hand. The keg labeling system devised by Domino is simple, reliable and designed for harsh, wet environments, This ensures that the machinery is robust enough to operate for many years to come. In addition, the cost-effective nature of the solution has ensured that breweries have achieved a rapid return on their investment.
Domino looks beyond core machinery however. An example is the yellow ink for the brewing industry. Yellow and white inks are designed for amber and green bottles to print Best Before and batch codes. Domino’s new 2YL955i yellow ink has been through an extensive research and development phase, and launched in early 2016.
This ink has since been tested by many large breweries who decided to replace their existing inkjet printers with new Domino printers and the yellow ink. The ink has been designed to be applied to wet bottle applications and where chilling/refrigeration are required. The ink has very strong adhesive qualities, as well as providing exceptional code contrast on amber and green bottles.
We hope you enjoyed this post, in the final post of this three-part series, we shall be exploring how you can optimize your coding systems further and, by doing so, how that can help drive growth for your organization.