The decorations on a cake are almost as important as the actual recipe – not just for children! Fondant, sprinkles and sugar beads create true works of art. Städter GmbH from Allendorf/Germany lets its customers individually combine their decorative sprinkles to their liking. Bluhm Systeme provided the machines and labels that mark the little sprinkle bottles.

By means of Städter decorative sprinkles, bakers can easily embellish their creations with any design. The company’s product range includes stars, beads and butterflies as well as Christmas themes, such as Christmas trees and gingerbread men. The supplier of baking accessories has more than 3,500 articles permanently in stock.

“We have to label more than 300,000 products every year,” explains Jens Städter, Städter Operations Manager. “Our decorative sprinkles are filled into round or square plastic bottles. So, we needed a labelling system that reliably labels both packaging shapes.” Yet, Städter was looking for flexibility beyond the packaging shape. “Depending on the contents and bottle shape, we choose the label size to cover the entire bottle or only part. The contents are just too pretty to cover them completely,” notes Jens Städter.

The Bluhm Systeme Geset 749 labeller perfectly meets this desire for flexibility. It labels up to 80 bottles per minute – whether round or square. Städter employees manually place the products on the system’s conveyor belt. A pneumatic alternator makes sure that bottles are always equidistant from one another while travelling down the belt. As soon as a photocell detects a product approaching, the label applicator jumps into action, pushing the label down to the edge of the dispenser. While the product is transported past the dispenser edge, the label sticks to the little bottle and is fully attached as the bottle travels by.

A label-wrap belt behind the applicator rotates the bottles. Foam-rubber panels opposite the rotator enable both round and square bottles to be processed by providing the necessary counter-pressure. As a result, labels are automatically wrapped around different packaging formats. A Siemens S7 controller sets the exact time of labelling so that labelling on square bottles always starts precisely on the edge. From here, the products proceed to a rotating tray where they are manually packaged.

Städter also relies on Bluhm Systeme for its labels. “We use no-label-look labels made of transparent PE foil for wrap-round labelling,” explains Jens Städter. “They keep the contents visible and are attached with a special bubble-free adhesive.”

Square bottles are labelled on three sides with light-grey labels keeping contents visible through the fourth side. These labels are shorter than the wrap-around labels. The font size is reduced to get the same amount of information onto the smaller surface. As the label is made of white foil, the smaller writing is still easy to read.

In accordance with European Food Information Regulations (Lebensmittelinformations-Verordnung – LMIV), Städter labels must feature a wealth of information. This includes ingredients, possible allergens, batch number, date of minimum durability and storage conditions. As products are exported to more than 40 countries, this information has to be provided in various languages. Jens Städter appreciates how easy it is to prepare print data. “Our employees create the label layout with label-maker software at the computer and send it through the network to the labeller’s printing module. Printing takes place in batches.”

Since label printing takes a few seconds longer than actual labelling, the Geset 749 re-routes labels into a holding loop. The Bluhm Systeme developers call the movable, dancing reel a shuttle. Labels collect on this separate reel before being applied to products at a higher speed. Thanks to the shuttle, the printing process can be decoupled from labelling.

Due to their modular design, Geset labellers can be tailored to customer needs. Different Geset lines perform different tasks: The Geset 100 line, for example, offers affordable starter models for simple labelling needs. A separate controller assigns various tasks to units from the 300 line, including wrap-round labelling. The 700 line has the most flexible systems that can be upgraded to label printer applicators by means of a printing module.

The Geset 749 proves its flexibility when marking bottles of decorative sprinkles for Städter. Whether square or round bottles, wrap-round or three-sided labelling, transparent or opaque labels: The bottles are reliably labelled while contents stay visible.