Plastic bottle printing offers
Plastic printers for ultrafast coding and a choice between permanent or removable codes for plastic bottles.
YOUR CHALLENGES:
Plastic bottle printing is one of the most popular applications, especially when it comes to bottles made of PET (Polyethylene terephthalat) and, increasingly, its returnable alternative RefPET, in the FMCG, pharma and automobile sectors, for example. Both the popularity and complexity of polymers like PET for bottle coding are down to the characteristics of the polymers used, with commonly arising challenges for plastic bottle printing including:
- Humid environmental conditions e.g. for beverage coding, that demand a high level of adhesion, or indelibility, besides a need for substrate cleanliness for coding.
- The additional difficulty for ink adhesion of plastic bottle substrates including poly resins like PE and PP.
- An increasing need to include ever more information on the substrate e.g. for traceability, and to code in more complex formats, including in 2D, like QR codes.
- Requirement to code at ever higher production speeds and pack rates, especially in beverage coding, with a need to maintain consistent and excellent quality.
- The usually smooth, non-porous and often curved shape of plastic bottles which can make coding challenging.
- Demand for waste reduction and increased sustainability, meaning reducing substrate thickness and increasing fragility.
- Increasing demand for returnable bottles that require codes that last through consumption but are then easily removable.
Fortunately, we can help you find your ideal plastic bottle printing solutions.
OUR SOLUTIONS
Plastic bottles, especially those made of PET, are most commonly used in FMCG, especially for soft drinks, water and other beverages. Their many advantages include a high level of recyclability, their ability to preserve freshness, a relatively low cost and the fact that they are far more resistant to breakage than glass, and weigh less, making their transportation cheaper. The polymers used are also mostly transparent, which is often seen as an advantage in retail as well as being compliant for food safety regulations internationally. Their advantages mean that PET is also becoming increasingly substituted for other less versatile plastics in FMCG like HDPE.
Markem-Imaje has been innovating in date printing machine solutions for plastic bottles for decades and has honed continuous inkjet (CIJ) and CO2 laser technologies that excel on these substrates to match the evolving needs of global FMCG brands.
Interest in using returnable or refillable PET, RefPET, is rising worldwide, driven by cost in high growth markets and by environmental considerations in mature markets. Markem-Imaje propriety CIJ technology excels at this complex coding where ink must last until the unit is returned or recycled but be capable of removal so a new code can be applied once refilled. Markem-Imaje has a wide selection of colored inks to suit bottles of different colors that deliver the necessary adhesion for 100% of RefPET. Codes come off easily, even having applied a coating to cover marks on bottles which have been returned and refilled many times. Laser, with its indelible marks, is not suitable for coding RefPET unless used with a label too.
At Markem-Imaje, our role goes beyond providing innovative coding technologies; it extends to providing software and services, supporting regulatory compliance, conducting sample process reviews, and offering advice on the role of marking and coding in Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) strategies.
Whatever your plastic bottle printing application, Markem-Imaje innovations in CIJ and CO2 laser fulfil your requirements.
Please note:
if you are looking to code on paper labels for plastic bottles, please see our optimized beverage coding solution dedicated page.
Simply leave your e-mail address in the form to be contacted by one of our experts who can provide detailed information and help you find the best solution for your plastic bottle printing requirements.
What our customers say about our solutions
It was crucial for us to find a supplier that could cover the extremely wide range of packaging we use for our products. With Markem-Imaje we found the partner we were looking for.
Raffaele Bini, Engineering Manager Sanpellegrino
Quick links — Jump to the right section directly!
Connected Packaging and Packaging Intelligence software
Our Packaging Intelligence solutions combine our proven coding and marking expertise with our experience to deliver complete turnkey solutions for achieving the maximum packaging line efficiency, trouble-free data management, and supply chain traceability all the way to the consumer’s hands. CoLOS® will significantly enhance your productivity and quality control while also addressing the challenges of waste and costs in an ever-changing manufacturing environment, creating a smarter business. Looking for a partner to develop your product’s digital roadmap? Markem-Imaje end-to-end solutions include leading solutions for supply chain traceability and authentication through our Systech brand and an ultimate consumer engagement experience with Blue Bite.
With more than four decades of experience in Continuous Inkjet (CIJ) innovation, Markem-Imaje has a full range of coders for plastic bottle printing. Our vast ink portfolio includes competitively priced MEK-free inks and reduced VOC varieties for reduced environmental impact, as well as inks for returnable bottles. This makes Markem-Imaje CIJ printers the most flexible and one of the most reliable on the market today. Designed for maximum uptime, TCO and ease of use, our CIJ range simplifies daily activities and makes your coding process seamless.
Markem-Imaje 9330
CIJ printer designed for light to medium duty production lines, the 9330 series offers versatility, cost-effectiveness and longevity, covering all your basic plastic bottle printing needs, with the capacity to code for more than 8,000 hours
non-stop.
Markem-Imaje 9750
CIJ printer designed for medium to heavy-duty production lines, the 9750 is an ideal as a date printing machine for bottles, primed for digitalization and traceability with its unique 24-pin interface delivering clear, customizable, traceable
black or colored codes, including 2D codes (QR and DotCodes), in a modular format which is easy-to-use.
Markem-Imaje 9750+
CIJ printer designed for medium to heavy-duty production lines such as those used in FMCG plastic bottle printing, the 9750+ features a revolutionary, polyvalent ink circuit for both standard marking or pigmented contrast printing, giving you the highest level of flexibility and inventory streamlining across your installed base.
View Markem-Imaje 9750+Markem-Imaje 9750 Expert Series
CIJ printer designed for the most challenging and fast FMCG coding operations, the market-first 9750 Expert Series of CIJ printers has been innovated to mark tiny surfaces, deliver enhanced 2D messages, including QR codes, ideal for today’s demands for a date printing machine for bottles, and only requires one type of coder for dye or pigment prints.
View Markem-Imaje 9750 Ew+CIJ Consumables for plastic bottle printing
We offer a full range of proprietary inks to match your requirements for plastic bottle printing, including MEK-free options. Our consumables range includes fast-drying inks with a high level of resistance to water, cleaning agents and the pasteurization process. A high-adhesion or permanent ink offering, ideal for recyclable plastics including beverages as well as industrial applications, improves performance and meets stringent compliance regulations. We also offer removable ink primed for returnable PET, or RefPET.
Our SmartLase ® CO2 laser printers provide high-quality, permanent codes for your plastic bottle printing needs. With patented Intelli’Arc® scribing, paired with on-board Intelli’Cool® to lower temperatures, our lasers deliver crisp, high-contrast codes with greater uptime and reliability than others. Our lasers also meet the highest standard of safety for E-stop and interlock circuits, ISO 13849-1 / PLe 4.
SmartLase ® C150 and C350
Laser printer designed for medium to high-speed intermittent or continuous lines, the SmartLase ® C150 and C350 30-watt CO2 lasers deliver permanent, crisp, clear and traceable codes, perfect as a date printing machine for plastic bottles, at 30% faster than other lasers and up to 150,000 products per hour.
View SmartLase® C150 and C350SmartLase® C340
Laser printer designed to be a complete and cost-effective 30-watt CO2 laser that is suitable for basic printing on plastic, coding up to 125 meters per minute. The C340 is subject to regional availability.
SmartLase® C350 BOU
Laser printer designed for tight spaces where other laser coders cannot reach, the SmartLase ® C350 BOU (Beam Orientation Unit) offers easy integration in medium to high-speed production lines with the highest quality indelible codes for
plastic bottle printing.
SmartLase ® C600
Laser printer designed for high-speed applications like beverage coding and for the most challenging Industry 4.0 environments. Our most advanced CO2 laser coder, the SmartLase ® C600, delivers superb code quality and more power, even with 1D and large 2D codes, at rates of up to 150,000 products per hour, according to the application.
View SmartLase® C600SmartLase® C600 BOU
The SmartLase® C600 BOU (Beam Orientation Unit) is a fast 60-watt laser that provides permanent coding at rates of up to 150,000 products per hour even in the tightest of spaces, ideal for beverage lines. The coder can be configured with up to three elbows and four tubes that come in six standard lengths to meet most installation scenarios.
View SmartLase® C600 BOU2D codes have already become an indispensable method of connecting your products to the Internet, facilitating vast amounts of product data and customization possibilities. They are also simultaneously becoming essential to comply with new regulations and standards, especially concerning traceability, including for the GS1 Digital Link, Digital Product Passport, and the US FDA’s FSMA regulations. The advantages of 2D codes for boosting brand loyalty through the supply chain are unrivaled. The possibilities for promoting sustainability efforts, packaging design efficiencies, and retail process optimization are enviable.
With the GS1 set to begin phasing out 1D barcodes in favor of 2D codes like the QR and DataMatrix from 2027, at Markem-Imaje, we have GS1 Digital Link-compliant 2D codes at the heart of our innovations from our coding hardware to software solutions supporting leading brands and retailers around the world to define and implement their connected product roadmap. Connect with us to talk to an expert or read more on our 2D solutions dedicated page!
Leave your e-mail address in the form to be contacted by one of our experts who can provide detailed information and can help you find the best solution for your printing on plastic needs.
You may also be interested in discovering more about...
Consumables and supplies
Inks and additives: find our genuine CIJ, DOD, TIJ, and Touch Dry Hot melt inks adapted to each marking need.
Ribbons and labels: find the thermal printing ribbon products.
Software
CoLOS® industrial software solutions: find options to digitalize your packaging operations easily.
Solutions
Find our Packaging Intelligence Solution to enhance and achieve traceability: Colos traceability solutions.
Find industry hot topics that benefit from using 2D barcodes for connected products: Connected and compliant 2D barcodes
Find out to optimize beverage coding at all packaging levels: Beverage solutions
Andreas Wehl – Head of Packaging Innovation and Cosmetics @ Töpfer
“In conjunction with our system, we ensure that we can send brand, item number, batch number, and more to our marking systems without errors. “
#CIJ
Andrea Boccolini – VFFS Technical Sales Support Manager @ IMA Ilapak
“Our machines are exported around the globe: IMA IIapak has always found Markem-Imaje to be an excellent partner capable of supporting our clients in every part of the world with widespread support and prompt service in the supply of spare parts”.“
#TTO #OEM
Xavier Bossard – Operations, Digital and Logistics Project Manager at Bioplants @ Bioplants
“The Markem-Imaje solution proposed to Bioplants was interesting because we could choose the criteria we needed: Before that, we were using a labeler, so one consumable item was created every time we labeled a package. Today we use hot melt ink directly projected on the cardboard allows us to add traceability to the packages, which we did not have before.”“
#TouchDry #HighResolutionInkjet
Nicola Marchesin – IT Manager @ Mebra Plastik
“This (CoLOS) has allowed us to be much more efficient, reducing line equipment times and making it possible to implement new solutions such as automated metrics, fewer ink types, and less waste thanks to more ecological containers and less energy consumption.” “
#CoLOS #SoftwareSolutions
