Markem LP 8400 Story
Posted by Dana Ritchie on December 1st, 2008
I have a customer with a Markem LP 8400 that is printing colored labels for an outdoor application. The problem they are having is this machine is 10 years old and it is obsolete. Markem is not supporting this equipment anymore. Not only are they having trouble getting parts, they are having trouble getting supplies, labels and ribbons. Over the past 14 months, I have been working on finding a solution with flexographic inks that would withstand the rigorous testing procedures and last out doors many years. The problem with flexographic inks is that they fade outside in a very short period of time. We could not make it past the 250 hour in the Weather-o-meter testing. I am here to report we have made significant progress. I will be writing more about this application over next several weeks. More to come.
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I was the test engineer for Markem on the LP 8400 Project, and also did application work with the equipment through the 90’s. It’s unfortunate that the product was not maintained and iterated, it was truly a product ahead of its time, and there are many applications where it would still be a good fit. Sony and IIMAK are good sources for colored ribbon, and while they did not offer the opacity of the original Toppan (Markem) products,recently discontinued, they are useable. For outdoor print permanence, you may want to consider a UV filtering film laminate, try Flexcon (Spencer, MA). Good luck!
Comment by Richard H. Smith — April 16, 2009 @ 8:46 am
Dana,
we are actually supporting the Markem LP 8400 presses with spare parts, etc., retrofit them and even have a new generation of the technology as well. Let me know what the issues are with the machine and I will try to help! Looking forward to hearing from you. Olaf. (704-875-1286)
Comment by Olaf Walter — April 28, 2009 @ 10:41 am
Richard, thank you for your input. I have been working on a solution for the past two years on fade resistant inks and am happy to report we now have a product. I agree that the Marken LP 8400 was a machine years ahead of its time. The problem I was having with my customer was I did not have a flexographic ink that could withstand the sun for more than a year. We went the route of all of the overlams on the market, 3M, Flexcon etc, but nothing with hold of after three years. I hired a chemist and we now have a solution to compete with the Markem LP 8400 machine. Again, thank you for visiting my site, and if I can be of any further assistance, please do not hesitate to email or call. Have a great day, Dana.
Comment by Dana Ritchie — May 15, 2009 @ 3:09 am
Olaf, thank you for visiting my site. I appreciate your input. I will keep your number incase the customer wants to keep their system alive. The main problem with the Markem LP8400 is that no matter what size you the label is, you need to run a 6.5″ stock and overlaminate. There is a great deal of waste and cost associtated with this process. I do agree that this machine is a great machine and can produce labels like no other printer. The route the customer has decided to go is that since we have invented a fade resistant ink, I now supply the labels in the colors they need and then they run them through a Zebra printer to print the variable information. They are thrilled with the flexibility and the cost savings, not to mention that the Zebra runs 3-4 times as fast. Again, thank you for visiting my site and I will forward to hearing from you. If I can help you in anyway regarding my new inks, please do not hesitate to email or call. Have a great day, Dana.
Comment by Dana Ritchie — May 15, 2009 @ 3:15 am