Label Products Inc. Converts Multiple Presses to Baldwin’s LED UV and 100% Vision Inspection

Label Products Inc. Converts Multiple Presses to Baldwin’s LED UV and 100% Vision Inspection

October 26, 2021 Off By Sebastian Reisig

At a deal reached during Label Congress in September, Label Products Inc. announced that it will convert the bulk of its flexo label production to 100% LED UV and 100% image inspection from Baldwin Technology Co., and connect all the available data on its presses via Baldwin’s AMP IoT Industry 4.0 platform.

Burnsville, Minnesota-based Label Products specializes in a full range of prime label manufacturing for industries ranging from pharmaceutical and beverage, to consumer and industrial products. Its specialties, including in-line foil and varnish effects and variable digital print, position Label Products as one of the most capable independent converters in the upper Midwest.

Label Products VP of operations Mek Paneinh said the company has been overhauling and upgrading multiple facets of its production technology to keep up with customer demand and growth in its markets. He added that the first aspect of the deal reached with Baldwin extends Label Products’ LED strategy to the rest of the production on its Mark Andy presses.

“We were sold on LED UV for labels when we converted our first 10-color press with the help of Baldwin’s AMS team in 2018,” Paneinh commented. “LED is easier for operators, gives us faster press speeds and the process is whisper quiet. Colors are brilliant, the lamps are rock solid, and it has solved so many of our traditional challenges associated with UV curing lamps, including heat, press speed and lamp output consistency. Not to mention it’s sustainable, environmentally friendly and safer for our operators.”

And Label Products stakes its claim as the first label converter in the upper Midwest to completely eliminate traditional arc-lamp mercury-based UV curing from its production process.

The second aspect of the deal is defect detection from Baldwin Vision Systems, which Label Products is deploying across its digital and flexo presses. Baldwin’s Guardian PQV platform provides a high resolution, easy-to-use 100% image inspection compatible with a number of material types including label and highly reflective foils.

“Guardian gives us the ability to catch and remove defects quickly before they get downstream, and allows us to produce higher quality, more consistent labels for our customers,” Paneinh continued.  “Baldwin’s background in security print was ideal for where our company is heading, with more and more customers requiring anti-counterfeit and trust codes to be added to their labels.”

What sets Baldwin apart from others, Paneinh stated, is its excellent service and support, and how it partners and approaches the connectivity of its comprehensive set of solutions.

“In the past, we would have all these key technologies from multiple vendors on our machines, making it difficult for operators to learn our process,” he concluded. “With Baldwin, we are also deploying its AMP IoT Industry 4.0 platform across all of our machines to bring more uniformity to our production process, monitor OEE, and to make it easier for operators to switch between machines and stay within our quality targets.”

Shown in picture L to R: Matthew Mayclin and Mek Paneinh of Label Products and Rich Bennett, President of Baldwin’s AMS Spectral UV