With manufacturing and packaging plants in Marlborough, MA; McDonough, GA; and Las Vegas, Ken's Foods Inc. produces more than 400 varieties of salad dressing and sauces, including those marketed under the Ken's salad dressing and Sweet Baby Ray gourmet sauces brands. Whether manufacturing product for its own brands or co-packing condiments for another brand owner, Ken's prides itself not only on the quality of its food products, but also on the cleanliness of its operations. Understandably, the manufacturer was dismayed when its case coders began to leave unsightly stains on the packing operation's floors.

Live demonstration builds interest 

So when company's upper management saw a RSI CaseJet MVP Pro printer in operation at PACK EXPO International 2008, they were excited. The thermal ink-jet printer is housed in a stainless steel enclosure and uses water-based HP 4500 pigment inks that are self-contained. This design helps eliminate messy ink spills.

After PACK EXPO, Ken's Foods purchased two printers for its Marlborough plant. "There was a
hesitation on our part as far as how far we wanted to go because we weren't sure how difficult that integration was going to be," recalls Mark Shaye, senior project engineer for Ken's Foods. "It turned out to be very painless. If the integration would have been extremely difficult, clunky or just did not work very well, we might have no more than two in our company." 

Ken's Foods was impressed by the coder's cleanliness, ease of integration and, most importantly, print quality. "The system puts consistent, legible, case codes on every case that we put out," remarks Dave Muskopf, vp of engineering for Ken's Foods. 

Not only are the codes crisp, they also are big. Each printer hosts four heads to create a whopping 8-in. image area. 

The multiple print heads don't require a great deal of maintenance, though. "Each printhead replacement refreshes the printing systems, minimizing the risk of nozzle clogging," Jim Constantine, RSI account manager for Ken's Foods, explains. "The cartridges can also be independently replaced while the equipment is running, keeping manufacturing line downtime to a minimum." 

If problems occur with a coder's printheads, they can be quickly and easily resolved. "You just pop in four new HP printheads that cost 30 bucks each," Shayne remarks. "There's no ‘I have to send a head out for repair.'

"We're the type of company that if we do repeat business, there's a reason," he adds. "The reason that we bought more systems is because they work."

As of time of publication, Ken's Foods has spent more than $1million on CaseJet MVP Pro printers for all three of its food packaging plants. 

More information is available:
RSI Systems LLC, 866/774-6847. www.rsipro.com

HP Specialty Printing Systems, 800/752-0900, www.hp.com/go/graphic-arts
Packaging Machinery Manufacturers Institute (PMMI), 888/275-7664. www.pmmi.org

.