In early 2000, Reynolds Group created an in-house engineering team tasked with developing innovative labelling systems for New Zealand industries.

Now, almost ten years on, the company says it has a sizable product catalogue of labelling systems and large installed bases in New Zealand and Australia filled with satisfied customers.

Owing to Reynolds’ close relationships with many New Zealand producers it has been able to translate the specific needs of particular industries into its labelling machines while maintaining its core principles of accuracy, reliability and ease of use.

The wine and beverage bottle industry is a market sector that Reynolds’ labeller range is particularly well suited to, especially for small and medium size producers who aspire to grow.

And that journey starts with the company’s semi-automatic labeller. With a bottle labelling attachment designed by Reynolds Group, it harnesses the power of the Avery Dennison ALS204 labelling head to apply front and back or medallion labels at very high cycle rates.

To take full advantage of the incredible cycle time, the system has an auto-eject mechanism which allows two people to work together in tandem (one loading and one packing) to race through production in record time.

And with a price comparable to bench top systems this significantly higher production rate means a much shorter pay-back period, by comparison. But the major coup in the design is the pay-off upon upgrade to an RGL Bottle Labelling system.

On the back of the semi-automatic labeller a client’s business can grow to the point where an in-line labelling system is needed to fill orders. This is normally a significant and sometimes daunting leap in terms of technology and expense, but the semi-automatic labeller bridges the gap. By trading in the bottle labelling adapter the Avery Dennison ALS204 labelling head can now become the engine room for an RGL Bottle Labelling system – this time with all the power unleashed – and a company’s investment realised for a second time.

This ensures the company is set with a system capable of automatically applying front and back, neck, and medallion labels – as well as hangtags – extremely accurately and at very high production rates.

There is more to successful labelling than just placing labels, which is why Reynolds Group’s in-line labellers are designed to be an integral part of a client’s production process, with innovations like Reynolds’ unique adaptive production system.

Imagine a labelling system fed directly from a filler and outputting onto an accumulation table where several staff are hand-packing into boxes. Procedings can quickly get out of control, which inevitably leads to emergency stops and jams, and the loss of precious time while the line is reset.

The RGL adaptive production system overcomes this by offering local foot switches to operators, allowing them to slow or pause the labeller and because of a clever interface the filler gets the message to take a breather as well.

This intelligent system knows that a lot of operator input means it is over-producing and little operator input means it is under-producing and so it is perpetually ‘hunting’ for a production sweet spot. In sports this is called “being in the zone”.

Reynolds’ Key Performance Indicator (KPI) module makes sure there is no cheating either and production managers are provided a daily scorecard from the labeller with a detailed report containing production statistics and operator interactions.

With bottles decorated and boxed there is often more labelling to be done before a client’s shipment can enter the supply chain. Reynolds Group deals to this pain as well with a range of solutions designed to meet the Australian and New Zealand grocery industry guidelines, like the RGL Carton Labeller which automatically prints fully compliant GS1 barcodes and then places them onto two adjacent sides of the carton in a single pass.

If a company needs to wrap the pallet and apply an SSCC barcode label, Reynolds can deal with that via a robot stretch-wrapper that is walked up to the pallet and then automatically scoots around it wrapping as it goes.

When the wrapping is complete GS1-compliant SSCC labels are issued to pop onto the pallet faces ­– job done.

Reynolds Group’s technical services team have been busy of late, designing innovative service programmes with unique benefits to ensure the company represents the highest in terms of reliability and lowest in terms of ownership costs.

Its Guaranteed Reliability Programme puts the company’s money where its mouth is and with RGL JumpZones (which cover all New Zealand wine-growing regions) you can experience this programme for the same travel costs as this country’s next door neighbour.

Whether a client purchases a labelling system, thermal printer or industrial ink jet printer from Reynolds Group the company offers 24-hour telephone assistance and on-call support.

(Freephone: 0800 263 464; www.rgl.co.nz; email: sales@rgl.co.nz).