HP Indigo: Packaging Printing System Upgrade

HP Indigo has developed an end-to-end label and packaging printing system that includes improved label printing, cartons, blister pack production, and systems that are fully integrated with radio frequency identification (RFID) technology. The system was developed by HP's research team and used HP's seven-color Indigo ws4500 for digital printing. The system will be fully available in March 2008.

The company stated that the new system complies with the requirements of the family tree serialization legislation that will be implemented in California in the United States in 2009. This regulation requires that all pharmaceutical packaging must be labeled with an RFID electronic identification label so that the product has a complete record of production and delivery processes. This may be accomplished using 2D barcodes or reduced space (RSS) barcodes, and it is also possible to place RFID tags inside pharmaceutical packaging to complete the recording process.

HP said that serialization and packaging of pharmaceutical labels was first completed using digital equipment. The technology has been validated by Nosco, a US pharmaceutical packaging supplier. Joe Tenhagen, associate director of sales at Nosco, said that brand companies use 2D barcodes to print labels and packaging. Reaching regulatory requirements is a very easy matter. Most of the company’s customers are interested in applying RFID to shelf-level and box-level solutions in the supply chain, including HP smart labels and packaging for item-level inventory management.