Bag closure manufacturer Kwik Lok Australia Pty Ltd is adopting Sherwood Technology's DataLase™ Masterbatch color change technology to date code bread bag closures for George Weston Foods (GWF). DataLase™ Masterbatch is a new generation coding, marking, and printing additive that enables plastics to be successfully marked using low power CO2 lasers.

GWF is one of Australia's largest food manufacturers, with over 75% of Australian households buying its bread. Kwik Lok all-plastic bag closures, which are marked to provide information on cost, freshness, and other package data, seal the bags.

Kwik Lok had worked with laser vendor Markem Corp to apply the data to the bread bag closures using a thermal transfer printer. However, GWF found that the information tended to rub off the closures, and as a result, requested that Kwik Lok, Unimark (Markem's agent), and Sherwood Technology work together to provide an alternative date coding solution. Unimark has supplied GWF with a number of Markem CO2 laser units during the first phase, although the intention is to eventually use color change technology as the default date coding method across all new lines at GWF.

Now Kwik Lok applies DataLase™ Masterbatch directly to the bread bag closure polymer by extrusion. The non-toxic, environmentally friendly additive is capable of producing an image when marked by a low power (around 10 W) CO2 laser. Once exposed to the laser on the production line, the additive undergoes a simple color change to create a stable and high contrast date code. By combining DataLase™ Masterbatch with low power CO2 lasers, GWF was able to produce high quality date codes that could not easily be removed from the closures. The introduction of this solution has also resulted in faster production run times for the company and removed the need for expensive consumables on the production line.

"By using DataLase™ Masterbatch with GWF's all-plastic bag closures we are able to create added value for our customer through considerable cost reduction and productivity gains," comments Alex Anselmo at Kwik Lok Australia Pty Ltd.