Individual juice labeling
a mobile press has a MACH 4S on board
Juice knows apple - a MACH 4S traveling through South Germany
Autumn is the season of truth for orchard growers. Apples, pears and quinces have matured and are ready for harvesting. Gravensteiner, Boskoop red or green, Jakob Lebel and Brettacher are species fine for juicemaking. Mobile presses support at various locations. We did this report with "Saftmobil Malsch" on an estate in Maxau along the river Rhine. Ralph Joos is their person in charge. He always has a MACH 4S printer and proper labels with him to label "Grandpa’s best" or "Pete’s favorite juice".
Questions and answers
With regard to juicemaking, the old winepress comes to mind. Where has it gone?
Joos: 30 to 40 years ago, this was common in villages. Now, it is no longer worth it, as people have less fruit pressed. This is where we come in.
What service do you offer?
Joos: We operate a mobile juice press at appointed locations within South Germany. Floor space for two trailers, electricity and water supply are all we need. Everyone can bring fruit and then return home with own juice. There are also people who own trees that carry lots of fruit, but they do not make any further use of it. This fruit would be thrown away or spoil elsewise.
What exactly is going on here?
Joos: All the apples delivered are cleaned with high pressure, conveyed to a tank, mushed and pressed. The pomace is separated and the juice led to another tank. Brief heating makes it durable. The pasteurized juice is filled in foiled bags providing an outlet valve. We then pack the bags in cardboard boxes. Some customers like their juice untreated. Alcoholic fermentation will turn this to cider. This is what the older people loved to drink when working in the fields.
How do you label the juice boxes?
Joos: We used to buy labels ready-printed with our logo and address. We removed them from their liner material by hand and stuck them. As our system has been certified eco, we now make juice also of fruit organically grown. These are sold by resellers. We therefore need on the labels additional EAN codes, dates of expiration, lot numbers and descriptions related to a product.
- Ralph Joos (pictured right) on the road: Here he is packing fresh juice in bag-in cardboard boxes.
- Outdoor use requires rugged printers.
This is why you decided for a MACH 4S?
Joos: Yes. We offer juice made of apples, pears and quinces, type-specific or mixed, clear or turbid, or of fruit organically grown. 3 or 5 liters can be selected. Such variety results in a lot of different labels we would have to buy ready-printed. Now I set up labels myself using the cablabel software and transfer them to the MACH 4S using USB. Stand-alone operation requires no PC. We can access the labels anywhere, print them and stick them to boxes, according to the juice we have just produced.
Why a peel-off printer?
Joos: Each of us knows how uncomfortable it is to peel off a label, locate corners and margins and, on this occasion, cause damage to them. The MACH 4S model we selected separates a printed label from its liner material. I only have to remove it from the peel-off plate. While I stick the label, the printer is already printing the next one and provides it as well. This is great!
You have become more flexible with the label data.
Joos: That’s correct. We can fill an individual indication in an additional prompt and include it on a label – "Grandpa’s best" for example, or "Pete’s favorite juice". Kids love that. They occasionally help us on the bottling trailer and are then happy and proud to return home with their own juice.
Space-saving design
Most of the larger printers must be opened from the side. MACH 4S is different. To access materials, it does not demand for additional space on its right or on its left. The cover opens to the top. Labels and the ribbon can be inserted from the top resp. the front.
Video of the application:
cab case study: Juice knows apple - a MACH 4S traveling through South Germany
Products in use
November 2020