Printing on Glass Bottles

What is Glass Bottle Coding?

Understanding the importance of effective coding on glass bottles is crucial for product integrity, traceability, and regulatory compliance. Coding on glass bottles serves multiple purposes, from product traceability to consumer safety assurance.

It allows manufacturers to track their products throughout the supply chain, a crucial requirement in beverage industry where stringent regulations and quality control measures are in place. In bottling, efficient glass bottle coding is vital for traceability. Continuous inkjet printers excel here, offering speed, versatility, and non-contact printing. They handle high volumes while ensuring precise variable data application, making them a top choice for bottling companies.

Glass Bottle Coding and Glass Marking solutions

At Videojet, we recognise the importance of reliable and efficient glass bottle printing. Our glass bottle printers These printers enable you to mark alphanumeric batch codes, barcodes, best before dates, logos and other information onto glass packaging.

Choosing the Right Equipment for Glass Printing

Selecting the right bottle printing machine is a vital step towards achieving accurate and reliable glass bottle coding. Several factors need consideration when making this choice.

Initially, assess the unique requirements of your coding application. The size and shape of your glass bottles, the type of information to be coded, and even the speed of your production line should influence your choice. Equipment options like high-speed lasers and inkjet printers offer diverse capabilities to match these varying needs.

Inkjet Printing on Glass Bottles

Inkjet printers bring versatility and flexibility to printing on glass bottles. They can handle a variety of coding requirements, from alphanumeric codes to barcodes, logos, and expiration dates, and are also capable of high-speed production lines.

Maintenance and durability of the coding equipment are also crucial considerations. Equipment that is easy to clean and maintain will minimise downtime and ensure consistent performance. Moreover, equipment must be robust enough to withstand the demands of your production environment.

Videojet inkjet glass bottle printers feature pigmented inks for printing high-contrast codes onto dark glass or clear glass bottles containing dark liquids. A unique ink formulation enables the printing of high quality inkjet codes, which can also be easily removed for returnable bottle applications. Videojet also offers an ink solution that changes colour to validate the autoclave process for glass bottles being sterilised.

Laser Printing on Glass Bottles

High-speed lasers offer exceptional precision and speed, making them an ideal choice for glass bottle coding. They provide high readability codes, even on curved or irregularly shaped bottles, and their permanent coding solutions resist smudging or fading, ensuring longevity.

Videojet’s laser marking systems can print high-resolution permanent codes on virtually any type or colour of soda lime silica glass container (the most common glass in the industry).

Glass bottles and containers remain a popular packaging option for a number of reasons – including product differentiation and identification of a premium product. In addition, its re-use (returnable bottles) and recyclability make it an environmentally conscious choice. Glass bottles are popular for a variety of food and beverage products and those that require a strong barrier protection.

Likewise, the commercial glazing products market continues to grow, where glass manufacturers and processors are required under the British Standard Code of Practice BS6262-4 to include visible identifying marks and safety marks (such as CE marks, Kitemark symbols) on panes.