Inkjet Coding as a Competitive Advantage for Alfalfa, the ‘Rodney Dangerfield’ of Crops
InkJet Printing on Vinyl Bags provides breakthrough for Alfalfa sales.
Alfalfa is not as easily recognized on the dinner table like other grain crops such as corn or wheat. This ‘Rodney Dangerfield’ of crops has been a mainstay of US farms and ranches for more than a century, and growers admire Alfalfa for its high yield, wide adaptation, disease resistance, and excellent feeding quality. Alfalfa is used extensively as a horse feed, and for sheep, beef and other animals. The U.S. grows about 23 million acres of Alfalfa each year. Alfalfa is third in value behind only corn and soybeans.* (*According to the California Alfalfa & Forage Association)
Differentiation through Packaging
Alfalfa is one of many competitive industries that is constantly looking for ways to cut costs and improve packaging efficiencies. When it comes to delivering Alfalfa to end customers, manufacturers rely on a variety of packaging including large vinyl bags. There are significant savings available to manufacturers who standardize around a small number of bags, and who provide variable data to differentiate the product offerings.
Alfalfa Bag Coding with Solvent InkJet
Take a look peak at how one Alfalfa manufacturer chooses to code their large vinyl bags using the Markoprint® solvent ink print technology.
HP-based solvent thermal inkjet is an ideal technology for Alfalfa manufacturers to deploy on their packaging lines. The durable coders have the industrial qualities to withstand harsh environments including heat, dust and humidity. Simply install the coder – such as the Markoprint® X1Jet – onto a conveyor or mounting system. The print quality can be adjusted from 100 dpi on up according to the requirements.
Solvent Based Ink for non-Porous substrates
The industrial coders utilize a self-contained print cartridge with either water or light-solvent based inks depending on the substrate to be printed. Typical codes being printed include product descriptions, lot/batch numbers, expiration dates, and barcodes when necessary. Each print cartridge can delivery thousands of prints depending on the size and length of the code being printed.
Case Printing Solutions is available to help companies buy, install, and maintain the entire print system including coder and inks. Call (541) 754-2273 for questions and comments.
