Ultra High-Volume Shipping Labels

At headquarters, the printer connects straight to an AS/400, eliminating the middleman: a dumb terminal that was so old that replacement parts were hard to find.

“This makes it so much easier to control spool files and if it runs out of labels, it’s easier to replace,” says Guardino. “We don’t have to worry about a work station dieing either. This is much simpler.”

The existing 10-year-old SATO printers have been recycled to print temporary labels on shipping packages, such as ones that announce: RED HOT SPECIAL or SALE DATE IS MAY 30.

Those old ones are proof of the workhorse reliability of the SATO printers and one of the reasons L’egent chose SATO printers again, notes Guardino.

“We tried other printers that are supposed to be high speed and print barcode symbologies over IP,” says Guardino. “Maybe they were faster, but when we tested those labels, they were not clear enough to scan accurately. If you don’t have a label that scans accurately 99% of the time or better, you get charged back. Sometimes that charge is $5 a box.”

“The only printers that print legibly are thermal transfer and that is because they move the ribbon ahead every time they print. You never get a used ribbon section. The heat is what is printing the letters or numbers, so it is nice and clean and crisp,” adds Guardino. Another bonus: L’egent can print colored text just by changing the ribbon spool.

“The SATO M84Pro printer really increased our speed a lot. Once it came out, we were in better shape. Sometimes we run five at one time,” says Guardino.

Alpha-Tech‘s Brian Brooks of Marlboro, NY, solved the second concern: getting labels to the distribution centers in a timely manner. He searched the Internet and discovered a Bos e-twinax controller.

SATO printers at remote sites plug into it, and it plugs into an Internet connection. Flip a switch, and the SATO printers in the distribution centers, whether in New Jersey, New York or California, receive printing orders from the AS/400 in Newburgh. Design of the shipping labels is controlled via T.L. Ashford’s Barcode400 software there.

“Once you give the e-twinax Internet connection, it finds its way back to the L’egent network and lets any device connected to it become part of the AS/400,” says Brooks.

Another plus is L’egent can continue to design labels with the user-friendly Barcode400 label design software. There were no complicated software changes, no bugs to work out, and no learning curve to overcome.

“When you have instant print capability, it’s like the labels are sitting in the distribution center,” says Guardino.

A different operation creates the price tags. Two different SATO printers are used, the SATO TG3 Series, which is specifically designed for printing tags, and the SATO M84Pro with the optional, tag cutter module. The TG3 Series are used for the large tag orders and the M84Pro printers for the smaller orders. Each variety runs off a Next-Link PC from Seneca Data running LABEL MATRIX®, barcode labeling and integration software from Teklynx® International. “That works particularly well with small labels,” explains Guardino.

Roy Lewis, owner of Bar Code Systems ∧ Supplies, set up the PC with three parallel ports and four serial ports for the tag printing station. It’s also connected to the Internet to receive tag orders.

Whether printing on tags or labels, however, L’egent needed a reliable and sturdy printer. “Rarely do we need anything fixed on the SATOs,” says Guardino. “Workers clean them with cleaning tape after each roll of ribbon runs out, but that’s all. We haven’t had any major problems with any of the units. True, we print such a high volume of tickets that we go through cutters quickly, but Roy did some research and found that all were basically the same.”

L’egent also purchased a spare cutter module for each type of printer. When the blades need to be replaced in either printer— the whole module is changed, which is a five-minute operation with either printer. Then Bar Code Systems ∧ Supplies rebuilds the cutter module. This way the tag printers are down for a minimum of time. “I believe one of the TG3 Series has more than 5,000,000 inches of printing on the print head and it is still printing excellent,” says Lewis.

L’egent had become so used to the reliability of the SATO printers, that it was almost a non-issue. What did sell them on the new printers were the speed and the twinax connection enabling it to go straight to the AS/400. Says Guardino, “We don’t need anything else. There’s no IP connection. If the printer runs out of labels, it’s easier to replace. It is just much simpler.”

Meeting the compliance labeling demands of some of L’egent’s 1,000 customers improved its own operations. With the new twinax printers and off-site twinax controller to the Internet, printing labels and tags is accurate, fast and simple. L’egent is now able to more efficiently serve its customers and satisfy its own pocketbook, too.