Issue
We need to print sleeve or plastic labels in advance and then take it to the line with every job. Thus, that keeps a person busy for a time, it happens that labels get lost or have a slight error, two production steps to worry about, etc.
Thus, can we print sleeve labels on-line as cards are being produced ?
Yes. One can put for example a Datamax or a Zebra label printer at the end of the line, connect via serial interface from a dflex, and each time the last product of that sleeve comes through, the corresponding label would be printed in less than a second: ready to be peeled off and stuck on the sleeve. Note: if you need to print labels in Japanese or Russian you will need the standard program Nicelabel which can handle Unicode.
It is highly recommended to use the GT1 format in both the a-data file and the label file. Yes, there is a data file for each card and there is a data file for each label. The Bundle number is the link between both files.
OK, what is needed other than this label printer ? The answer is data, that is, whatever variable information you want to print on that label, has to come on a file.
Description
The GT controller prints each single card with the corresponding pin #, control #, etc. Thus, the customer data department delivers a file with all variable information. For the purpose of this description, I will assume that one wants to print a pin # and a control # on the card, also that the cards are bagged in quantities of 10 (it works for 10 cards, it also works for 500 cards).
You notice that the first 5 numbers of the control number represent the bag number. The bundle number has to start a 1: which tells the controller print record 1 of the sleeve file. The GT controller needs that as reference to print bag labels. Not necessarily in the control number, but somewhere in the card file.
So the job is setup in the controller, for example the file would look like:
And the inkjet layout would look like:
Let’s now assume that you want to print a label like the one below for every sleeve. Similarly to the inkjet, there is a layout for the label.
If, on top of the sleeve label, you needed a label for a group of sleeves, say you needed a label because you put 5 sleeves in a box, you need another file call it the box file (stored in D:\EditorGT\data\sack).
The sleeve file would look different than above, Notice that now the first number is the box number and you have a end mark “B” every 5 records:
0001 01007317 04273 10 0321368601-0321368610 04273050000001
0001 01007317 04273 10 0321368611-0321368620 04273050000002
0001 01007317 04273 10 0321368621-0321368630 04273050000003
0001 01007317 04273 10 0321368631-0321368640 04273050000004
0001 01007317 04273 10 0321368641-0321368650 04273050000005 B
0002 01007317 04273 10 0321368651-0321368660 04273050000006
The Box file would look like:
0001 01007317 04273 10 0321368601-0321368650 04273050000001
0001 01007317 04273 10 0321368651-0321368700 04273050000002
…
0001 01007317 04273 10 0321368…-0321368…… 04273050000010 B
Another iteration: if, on top of the sleeve and box label, you needed a label for a group of boxes, say you needed a label because you put 10 boxes (containing each 5 sleeves) on a pallet, you need another file call it the pallet file (stored in D:\EditorGT\data\pallet).