Marking made easy: Plastic canisters in agricultural production

• Axéréal, a major French agricultural cooperative, uses LEIBINGER's JET2 NEO printer to mark plastic canisters with production dates and lot numbers for traceability.

• The marking system was chosen for its simplicity, requiring minimal training and offering intuitive operation to ease production staff workload.

• Installation by LEIBINGER partner LOGOPAK was completed quickly, with only three hours on site.

• The printer features automatic nozzle sealing technology that prevents ink drying during production breaks, ensuring reliable restarts and reducing maintenance.

Axéréal relies on LEIBINGER for product traceability and smooth production processes

French agricultural cooperative Axéréal produces liquid nutritional supplements for farms. The LEIBINGER JET2 NEO marks the plastic canisters containing these products with production dates and lot numbers. Implemented by LEIBINGER partner LOGOPAK, the system stands out at the Alligny-Cosne site for its simplicity: quick installation, intuitive operation and minimal training requirements. The black ink is suitably matched to plastic substrate, furthermore, reliable restarts after production breaks ensure that marking fits seamlessly into everyday operations.

Agriculture shapes France’s economy, its regions and its culture. As the European Union’s largest agricultural producer, the country plays a central role in Europe’s food supply.

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Cooperatives such as Axéréal bring together their farming members’ produce and handle its processing and marketing. Axéréal is one of the leading agricultural and food cooperatives, bringing together around 11,000 farming members. Operating in France and internationally, the group employs around 3,000 people and produces and processes 4.5 million metric tons of grain annually, primarily into flour and malt. Its aim is to strengthen its members’ agricultural production over the long term and create added value throughout the supply chain.

At its Le Suchet site in Alligny-Cosne, France, Axéréal supports agricultural operations in another way: by manufacturing liquid, predominantly mineral-based nutritional supplements for farms. This year, a site previously used to receive grain during the harvest was converted to include a 1,500-square-meter production area. Three mixers and storage tanks for raw materials and finished products form the core of the facility. Storage capacity totals around 100,000 liters for bulk products and approximately 200,000 liters for finished products, enabling batches of up to 7,500 liters to be produced.

The liquid product is filled into plastic canisters. Each canister receives a production date and a lot number, allowing it to be traced back to its production batch. Axéréal therefore needed a reliable coding & marking system that was easy to operate and, ideally, required no additional effort.

From selection to installation: Simplicity at every step

The project was implemented by LOGOPAK, a company of the Possehl Identification Solutions (PID) Group and a LEIBINGER partner. Installed at the end of the production line, the LEIBINGER JET2 NEO continuous inkjet printer applies variable data directly to the plastic canisters without contact.

Axéréal’s priority was a flexible system that would make life easier for the production team: straightforward operation, minimal training and low maintenance requirements. The ink was also selected specifically for the application. Consultation and print tests quickly identified a suitable black ink with excellent adhesion to the plastic used. This created the “Perfect Match” central to LEIBINGER’s approach: printer, ink, substrate and production environment working together.

Installation on site reflected the same focus on simplicity. “The LOGOPAK traceability solution was installed extremely quickly. A technician spent only three hours on site in total,” explains Mathieu Courilleau, Production Manager at Axéréal. Thanks to the intuitive operation, the team quickly became confident using the system after only a brief introduction.

Easy operation makes life easier for production staff

Courilleau uses an everyday comparison to describe how easily employees can operate LEIBINGER CIJ printers: “Anyone who uses a smartphone nowadays can use this printer.” For Axéréal, this means minimal training and a system that makes the team’s day-to-day work easier.

Reliable coding – even after extended downtime

According to Production Manager Mathieu Courilleau, the LEIBINGER JET2 NEO has operated smoothly at Axéréal since it was commissioned in April. “Even after long shutdowns, the printer starts perfectly on the first try,” he reports in the interview.

LEIBINGER’s automatic nozzle sealing technology helps make this possible. During production breaks, it seals the ink circuit in the printhead airtight, preventing the ink from drying out. The printer remains ready to start, with no dried ink residue to remove before production resumes. This reduces cleaning requirements and makes restarting production easier.