Just enough – this is the motto KHS has allowed itself to be guided by when developing the Innoket Roland 40. The result is a compact, economical labeling machine with an output of between 2,500 and 25,000 bottles per hour – in other words, one specifically tailored to the requirements of craft brewers. “We’ve specifically geared the new machine towards lines with a smaller output,” explains Cornelius Adolf, labeling product manager at KHS in Dortmund. “It’s therefore also an option for companies in the food and non-food industries, such as manufacturers of canned food, pet food or shampoo.”

Simple handling

The Innoket Roland 40 currently comes with two cold glue stations. This allows shoulder and neck labels to be applied at two levels on one station, for instance, with the second station affixing back labels to the bottles. Self-adhesive stations and combinations of cold glue and self-adhesive technology are also feasible. An­other labeling method also available for the Innoket Roland 40 is hot melt. “Despite this flexibility we’re still placing enough emphasis on the needs of our smaller customers for simple handling and low procurement costs while offering our accustomed high level of quality,” stresses Cornelius Adolf.

The key to this is to use as many tried-and-tested components as possible from the Innoket Neo series successfully established in the high capacity range. These include the carousel, infeed and discharge stars, folding doors, installation and format parts and guides and on the cold glue station the gripper cylinder and label magazine, for example. The servo feed screw found on the Innoket Neo, which unlike a stop star permits gentle bottle stops, has also been integrated into the Innoket Roland 40. In using components from the larger labelers for the smaller versions, a number of quantity effects are generated. These cut production costs and shorten procurement times. As the machine can be manufactured as a fixed-cycle assembly – a process already in force – the lead times in production are also faster. Cornelius Adolf sums up. “As there are fewer different parts, we can considerably shorten delivery times for our customers. This was an important objective when planning the ­Innoket Roland 40.”

“To cater for the needs of smaller customers we focus on simple handling and low procurement costs.”

Your contact on this topic

Cornelius Adolf
Labeling product manager
KHS GmbH, Dortmund, Germany

Phone: +49 231 569 1106
Email: cornelius.adolf@khs.com

Plenty of scope

The small table machine is no less representative of the high quality and good reputation of the Dortmund systems supplier than the highly technical labelers from KHS which for decades have been proving themselves in practice in the high capacity range. The new development also gives owners of the machine plenty of scope for more as and when required. For instance, the compact labeler can be equipped with KHS VarioDrives, bottle plates driven by servomotors, which permit individual labeling tasks. Another option is mechanical alignment by side or base notch or swing-top closure in the infeed star. Traveling applicators for cap or lid labels, foiling heads and rollers for L- and U-shaped labels – such as for the tax revenue stamps frequently required in the spirits industry – can also be installed on the Innoket Roland 40. Finally, a sensor package checks for the presence of labels at certain points, for example in the label magazine or on the gluing roller. Other sensors can detect broken bottles, for instance.

Even if in its basic version the new KHS labeling machine has been developed especially for customers on a lower budget, it gets results which satisfy even the highest aesthetic demands; using self-adhesive labels bottles can be given a fashionable no-label look, with the crystal-clear film making it seem as though the label has been directly printed onto the bottle.