The Challenge
A large water bottle company required a system to apply pressure sensitive labels to the top of bottle caps for its 5 gallon water bottles. The labels feature an FDA-approved adhesive which when applied to the top of the cap, serves as a valve cover. The cap’s protruding tear-tab makes it impossible to place it face up and flat on a normal conveyor belt. Previously these caps were labeled by hand.
The Solution
Label-Aire designed a custom product handling system utilizing dual side Linatex hugger belts. The hugger belts move and suspend the unlabeled caps face down at conveyor speed. The labels are accurately applied from underneath utilizing a single Label-Aire Model 3115 Wipe-On labeling head at speeds up to 200 caps per minute. The 3115 Hugger Belt System can handle cap sizes ranging in width from 1″ (25.4 mm) to 4″ (101.6 mm) and with a label placement accuracy of +/- 1/32″ (0.8 mm).