Read the latest news as Linx celebrates 25 years

Twenty five years after Linx started on the path of innovation, today’s buyers of coding and marking technology need to ensure the equipment they purchase is capable of meeting many demands.

These can include print quality (barcode compliance), ease of use, cost of ownership, reliability and integration with software packages and external devices such as barcode scanners or ERP systems.

For manufacturers such as Linx, customer demands are increasing and becoming more complex. In many instances coders are no longer standalone systems. A coder may need to be quickly portable, but equally may be part of a fully integrated production line, and the data links between the coders and external devices are an increasingly important part of any sales process.

At Linx, we undertook ‘Voice Of Customer’ research around the world in 2011, to determine exactly what customers wanted from coding and marking machines.

Simplicity of use was a key factor. As technological developments open up new possibilities, feedback from across a range of FMCG and industrial markets suggested that users prefer a simple, cost-effective solution rather than complex, feature-heavy machines.

Code content is becoming more complex, but user skills are not. This means there is a need for simpler on-board user interfaces, and the ability to control code content remotely

Reliability is a must: as other parts of the production line become faster and more flexible, coding equipment has to be able to match this flexibility, being ready to work where and when it is needed.  So, for example, printers are becoming more portable within the factory, to reduce the need for multiple printers and to be able to get up and running at a new location in minutes.

Modern printers also deliver reduced environmental impact. While coding and marking equipment produces relatively low amounts of waste in itself, there is an ongoing focus on reducing the need to replace parts and reducing consumables usage. Innovative machine design can help to minimise efficiency loss in manufacturing processes.

Today’s lean manufacturing principles require production to be more flexible, to react to smaller batch sizes and faster delivery. Therefore printers must be more flexible – capable of dealing with faster product changeovers and easily moveable between production lines.

Maximising productivity means reducing unscheduled and scheduled maintenance time and costs. Printers have to be equipped with quicker trouble-shooting and servicing capabilities, and ‘self-service’ options to allow basic maintenance to be carried out without the need to bring in an engineer.

With many coding and marking customers under increasing margin pressure, it’s clear that printer manufacturers can play a key role in helping reduce costs.

Coding and marking specialist Linx Printing Technologies is celebrating 25 years of innovation in technology and design with some fantastic competition prizes.

A quest to find the oldest surviving Linx continuous ink jet (CIJ) printer will form a central part of the jubilee celebrations. 

On Linx’s 25th birthday, 6 July 2012, the owner of the oldest Linx CIJ printer in each of four global regions will be chosen to win a new Linx CIJ printer, fully installed, plus an ink and solvent pack to get them started.

What’s more, once a month, from April to July, one registered prize draw entrant will win a Linx TJ225 thermal inkjet printer.

Paul Doody, Marketing Director, says: “This is a significant milestone for Linx and we’re proud to have spent a quarter of a century coming up with many industry ‘firsts’.

“We now look forward to sharing with new and existing customers even greater reliability, lower costs of ownership and enhanced ease of use.  These key characteristics have helped us serve our customers so well over the last 25 years, and will remain our focus for the next 25 years and beyond.”

Linx, based in St Ives, Cambridgeshire, began manufacturing and selling CIJ printers in 1987 with the 5200, 5100 and 5150 models.  …/

The company’s two founders, Mike Keeling and Hillar Weinberg, introduced new technology from the very start, including a totally sealed, adjustment-free printhead, time of flight viscosity control, and one-button start and stop.

These features went on to be adopted by other manufacturers and remain key features of all leading CIJ printers today.

Later innovations included the first autoflushing printhead, the first multi-message memory, the first icon-driven interface and the first manufacturer to offer IP55 as standard.

To register for the Linx 25th Anniversary prize draw, and for full terms and conditions, please go to www.linx25.com. Everyone who registers their details will receive a Linx commemorative mug (subject to availability).