News

PepsiCo is pioneering an energy-saving function on its thermal transfer coders, a move that will help the food and drinks firm reach its sustainability targets across its packaging lines.

Markem-Imaje has developed a power-saving feature for its best-selling SmartDate 5, which can be retro-fitted to existing units and reduces energy usage by half.

The Sleeping SmartDate coder saves energy by switching into sleep mode when the parent packaging machine is powered down.

It can also be programmed to sleep if the line is unused for a predetermined length of time and can be powered up again in less than one second. A small moon graphic appears on the machine's display when it is in sleep mode.

PepsiCo is trialling the upgrade on a number of its existing coders, before it rolls out the improved function across more of its packaging sites.

Steve Brooks, PepsiCo's regional packaging manager, said: "Globally we have more than 2,000 SmartDate coders installed on our packaging lines.

"Our largest areas of energy usage in packaging are electricity and compressed air and our goal is to reduce our energy consumption in these areas significantly over the next three years," he added.