"Customers order from us and we do the rest", is how technology boss Volker K. Weick summarizes the services offered by MKS – Marken Kosmetik Service GmbH & Co. KG, Bingen. As a member of the Woellner Group (see box), the Rhineland company has, it boasts, been one of the leading service providers in Germany for over 30 years as far as the development, production, filling and packaging of cosmetics, dietary supplements, drugs and medical products is concerned. "We offer a complete package, from development of the recipe through purchasing and production to filling", explains Weick.

Holding all the major certificates, MKS is able to fill a large range of containers with bottles, tubes, cans, dishes, canisters and special containers thanks to its versatile filling and packaging systems. In the filling and packaging industry, flexibility is the name of the game. Says Weick, "The lines are converted on average 800 to 1000 times a year." It is hardly surprising, then, that the alphaJET C inkjet printers – there are a total of five in use at the Bingen plant – are mounted on rollers. This enables the unit to be shifted easily to the next line. "As well as continuous numbering, the inkjet printers allow barcodes, data matrix codes or logos to be printed on products and packaging at print speeds of up to 2500 characters a second", says Michael Stingl of KBA-Metronic. The type height varies from 0.8 mm to 15 mm, and a maximum of 6 lines can be printed. The units, which for complex applications can be networked with a PC, barcode scanner, image detection system and x/y axis system, operate on the continuous inkjet principle. What is more, the integrated solvent recovery process, according to Stingl, makes them extremely frugal in consumption.

In addition to the inkjet printers, 14 hot-stamping units also carry out marking tasks at MKS. Apart from the new M03.1, these have been in use since as long ago as 1988. "They just don't go wrong", says Weick delightedly, "and if one of them does have to be replaced, the hot-stamping units offer a very attractive price/performance ratio." The combinations of letters or numbers that are to be printed are set in what are known as composing galleys. The galley, a sort of heated stamp, presses the data onto a label or product through the colored foil tape. At MKS, the batch numbers, expiration dates or weights to be printed vary from a type height of 2 mm to 6 mm and take up one to three rows.

The M03.1 model, for instance, can perform up to 1200 prints a minute depending on the material and the printing area. Nor does the coding always have to be applied in black. "The customer selects the color for the stamping tape that best fits his packaging", says Stingl. Alternatively, he uses the hot-stamping units without a color foil. This is what MKS does using a Weckerle system, for instance, on which lipsticks are formed and pushed into plastic sleeves. Weick: "Here we stamp colorless, i.e. we only use heat." This is what is called 'blind stamping'.

"The modular standard systems enable our customers to react quickly to the rapid pace of change on the market", Stingl adds. KBA-Metronic systems have been in use across the world for over 30 years. Stingl: "The units, which are manufactured in Germany, continue to enjoy an outstanding reputation." As well as inkjet printers and hot-stamping modules, they also include laser labelers and thermal transfer printers. With a workforce of around 300, the company, which is based in Veitshöchheim, near Würzburg, is the sole point of contact throughout, from development of the systems to service on site, "even or perhaps because it", says Stingl in conclusion, "like the hot-stamping units at MKS, goes back almost 20 years!"

The Woellner Group is a medium-sized business owned and managed by the Woellner family for four generations. With more than 500 employees, the group recently achieved sales of some 120 million euros. The core competencies of the Ludwigshafen-based group lie in three strategic business segments: silicates and special chemicals, cosmetics and writing fluids.

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Published Verpackungsrundschau 07/2006 (PDF)