Tortilla Factory Finds A Neat Solution to Ink Jet Coder Problems
Tia Rosa Bakery of Grand Prairie, TX is a specialty bakery in the manufacturing of corn and flour tortillas for retail and food service industries. A subsidiary of the Fort Worth-based Bimbo Bakeries, the bakery produces and processes over 2 1/2 million pounds of dough a month. With 115 employees working three shifts on five production lines, production goes on 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.
At the factory, raw materials are received and transported pneumatically into a mixer where minor ingredients are incorporated. The dough is portioned and pressed into tortillas, baked for 28 - 32 seconds, cooled, and packaged by automatic counters. The packages are either heat-sealed or twist tied, coded with ink jet printers, and placed into baskets for distribution.
Tia Rosa identifies each package with a shift code, the initials of the operator, and a freshness "pull date".
When Tia Rosa was acquired 1995, the bakery was using an ink jet printer that was outdated and had lately begun interfering with production.
Fernando Orozco, plant manager at Tia Rosa, describes the initial printer problems that led to a replacement. "The line needed updating. We were having problems getting a consistently legible code. There were frequent error messages, and every time the printer went down, it required repair. Also, it was incapable of putting the code where our customers wanted it. If the product had an illegible or obscure code, the customers would refuse the product. We were receiving refused product on a daily basis. That required us to re-package the product by hand."
Most of the other plants owned by Bimbo Bakeries were using ink jet coders manufactured by Domino Amjet, Inc. of Gurnee, IL, so the decision to install the same equipment in the Grand Prairie plant was easy. In 1996, Tia Rosa began using Domino's Codebox 2 Automatic ink jet printers along with ink that met FDA requirements for food packaging materials.
The Codebox 2 has automatic startup and shutdown and a self-cleaning printhead, which eliminates the need for trial runs for calibration as well as 80% of routine maintenance. Domino's ink management system reduces solvent usage and ensures consistent print integrity. The plug-in cartridge allows Tia Rosa to replace fluids while the printer is running and the system's easy set up and portability permit more flexibility for code placement.
"We went on-line with a Domino printer and immediately were able to code in the areas required by our customers," said Orozco. "The printer was much more reliable, and the codes were consistently clean and legible. We were able to completely eliminate refusals!"
Ink Substitution Causes Problems
Tia Rosa's production lines were running smoothly until early November 1997, when all the printers began showing error codes. "We could not explain it," Orozco cited. "One by one the printers were failing, all five that we own - within a two day period." After some investigation, Orozco learned that new personnel at Tia Rosa had switched from Domino inks to a generic brand. "Within a month we were not printing at all. The generic inks we put into the machines had caused all the printers to error, and we were coding completely off-line."
Ink jet printing is a precise science with many variables that require precise integration in a stable environment to maintain consistent print quality for long periods of time. Domino Amjet's Fluid Management System is designed for exact integration between printer and fluid. In the case of Tia Rosa Bakery, the protection of Domino's fluid program kept them printing error-free. When lower quality generic fluids were introduced into the system, the result was costly repairs to the printers and costly production downtime. The generic ink overrode procedures for Domino's Fluid Management System and eventually caused major electronic damage, which shut the printers down completely.
"We were down for three days. I called in Domino to repair the damage done by someone else's ink," said Orozco. "In the meantime, we had to code everything by hand. Over the course of three days, I brought in three extra people to code 36,000 packages. As soon as the machines were serviced and put back on track, the problems were completely eliminated. We've been running without problems ever since".
Since returning to the Domino Fluid Management System in November, Tia Rosa has enjoyed uninterrupted performance of their Domino printers.
For more information contact Domino Amjet, Inc., 1290 Lakeside Dr., Gurnee, IL 60031. 800-323-4754; Fax 847-255-2645.