Recently, Maxatec has partnered with Retail Vision in the Netherlands to provide an innovative solution for printing stamps for the Dutch Post Office (Royal TPG).
Cognitive's linerless Blaster label printer works alongside an ALD mainframe application and a Postal Transaction Terminal to print stamps and postage labels at post counters across The Netherlands.
Retail Vision and Cognitive began working together in 2000 and have subsequently worked closely to develop a reliable stamp and label printing solution for use at the Point of Sale (POS) in over 4000 Dutch Post Office installations.
Maxa Technologies and Cognitive have now developed a range of products that provide advanced printing solutions for organizations such as the PTT Swiss Post, Austrian Post, Hungarian Post, Belgian Post and Royal TPG (Dutch Post).
The Swiss Post is responsible for moving huge quantities of goods every day. Most of the parcel mail posted by private customers are individual consignments and low in volume. The Swiss Post transports an estimated 150 million parcels every year. These differ in terms of their packaging, weight, dimensions and also in terms of the quality of their packing.
Whether a forwarder delivers a truckload or the Post Office delivers an individual parcel; delivering undamaged goods to the right place at the right time are naturally prerequisites for both service providers. The difference in the services is that the forwarder generally delivers goods to a single or a few consignees, and
ordinarily unloads directly at the consignee's premises.
The challenge for the Swiss Post is to be able to accept domestic and international letter mail and parcels in varying shapes, sizes and weights, at all post office counters and forward them to every conceivable destination within Switzerland and beyond Swiss Frontiers.
The organisation of this transport service by the Post Office has evolved over a period of decades. Just like private sector companies, today the Swiss Post is under pressure from competing service providers based in Switzerland and other European locations. The challenge was to develop improved logistics to enable the Swiss Post to work successfully in an increasingly competitive market.
In order to deal with the infinitely variable charges for domestic and international letter mail, a Post Office must carry large quantities of high value, pre-printed stamps to reflect post charges. Not anymore, the Swiss Post solution, provided by Cognitive, is a Linerless label printer enabling a complex stamp with security graphic to be printed for any value of postage from a plain roll of material. No need to have expensive 'bullion' handling systems to deal with the potential loss of high value stamps.
As the flow of goods lagged further and further behind the flow of data, the Swiss Post needed to find a synchronized solution. To help achieve this, the parcels are given unique identification numbers that can be electronically recorded and tracked. This number takes the form of a Bar Code, in addition to a clear text form. When a parcel is supplied by a client, it is given a bar coded label and the client is given a confirmation of receipt containing the same bar code identification.
Using the unique identification bar code it is possible to verify that the parcel has been handed in by the client to the post office and then delivered to the consignee by the post office. In a further stage all the intermediate steps are also recorded and the bar code is used for the automatic sorting of parcels. The parcel can therefore be electronically tracked throughout its journey.
The identification label is produced on a POS label printer designed and manufactured by Cognitive, which is able to produce linerless labels of variable length as specified by the Swiss post.
Over the last few years Cognitive has pioneered the use of linerless label printers. Linerless technology has many benefits to the end user including environmental issues, such as reduced waste, increased roll capacity and of course variable label length. Variable label length was a major criteria for the Swiss Post, who required differing lengths from 30 to 90mm.
The label produced at the counter can be one of several formats. Information is entered into the Pakepost 2000 terminal via a keyboard and from the parcel weigh scales, and a label to suit the type of package, type of service and destination, is produced. Each label format provides differing information and hence is of a different size.
The printer is able to print and cut these varying labels from a single label roll due to the use of linerless label material. This new label material is a continuous roll of special thermal sensitive paper with a silicon coating, allowing its use without a label liner paper. The printer and the integral auto cutter are specially coated with plasma materials so that the paper does not adhere to the printer surface.
Following extensive trials with the linerless label printer, Cognitive were asked to further develop the POS system for the Swiss Post by adding a low maintenance cutter. The unique cutter was designed in minimum time allowing the Swiss post the advantages of a unique compact desktop, linerless label printer with auto cutter and razor sharp printing of text bar codes and graphics due to the 300dpi head resolution.
The Swiss Post Office is the first major parcel shipping organization in the world to implement this counter-top, linerless thermal label printing technology for producing Point of Sale (POS) stamps and labels at the point-of-sale.
