Bartoline installs eight Hitachi inkjet printers through Allen

Yorkshire-based Bartoline, a privately owned family business said to be the UK’s leading manufacturer of pre-packed solvents, woodcare products, fillers, wall covering adhesives and other home improvement products, has taken delivery of eight Hitachi RX-S continuous inkjet printers from specialist coding and marking equipment supplier Allen Coding Systems.

Bartoline has invested in eight inkjet printers from Allen

Bartoline selected the Hitachi printers to replace nine-year printing equipment, described as “failing and unreliable”.

Of the eight printers now operating on full and semi-automatic lines at Bartoline, six are installed on filling lines dedicated to solvents, while the remaining two are situated at the sister plant on lines carrying fillers and adhesives. 

Operating at various speeds up to 80ppm, depending on the products being packaged, the Hitachi machines are used to print batch codes on to PE and HDPE poly bottles in a variety of sizes.

Fred Chambers, production manager of the solvents division at Bartoline, said: ‘We were looking for printers that were both reliable and flexible with cheaper running costs than our existing equipment and that represented a reasonable investment cost based on bulk purchase. 

‘After discussions and recommendations from Allen Coding, the Hitachi RX-S small character continuous inkjet printer proved to be the best choice for our requirements.’

He added: ‘The best feature of the RX-S is its user friendliness. Plus, no modifications needed to be made as it meets all of our requirements.  We expect to spend less time on maintenance now that we have these reliable printers in place, which will help to improve productivity and allow us to be more flexible to the demands of our business.’