Continental implements EU Tyre Label with Legi-Air Tyre

Apart from linking the controller hardware and software to the SAP system deployed at the company, even the selection of the actual material for the label proved particularly challenging in this instance: Because labels will inherently stick poorly to rubberised surfaces. The manufacture of tyres will also unavoidably leave behind residues of chemicals and separating agents. The Bluhm Label Production Department therefore coated the labels with a powerful natural rubber adhesive that sticks to rubber particularly well. To ensure that the labels will be simple to punch, print and process in a labelling facility despite their specific properties, Bluhm Systeme and its raw material supplier developed a sophisticated solution to the challenge of label material and adhesive.

Although product labelling poses challenges, it also has significant benefits: Continental realised that labelling will render production and consignment steps transparent, potentially making an important contribution to quality assurance: 33 000 different vehicle tyres are produced daily at the Sarreguemines works in France alone. 1 000 workers process in excess of 650 different articles. This is why Continental and Bluhm Systeme developed the labelling facility to not only label tyres arriving in chaotic order, but to simultaneously also record them and prepare them for the Outgoing goods department. “We called the system “ALOC facility”, explains Alain Hoff, Sarreguemines Plant Operation Manager: “This stands for Automatic Labeling and Outbound Check – tyre labelling with outgoing goods inspection. This facility processes 10.5 million tyres per year and reduces our errors during consignment and dispatch to zero. The Legi-Air 5300 Tyre solution developed in collaboration with Weber Marking Systems has been adapted to perfectly suit our specific demands!“