Laser Printer for PVC

A leading company in the plastic pipes and fittings industry requires a Laser Printer to be installed on the production lines to to print barcodes on different products, in an accurate and time-efficient manner, to protect them against counterfeiting and facilitate traceability.

An invitation to electronics, mechanics and mechatronics engineers to provide a design and method of application for laser printing on PVC pipes and fittings for chance to win a reward of 70,000 EGP provided by USAID’s SEED’s Project in collaboration with the solution seeker to implement the solution. Please read on for more details!

Background:

Low-quality counterfeit plastic products do not meet standard specifications compared to original products, while they compete head-on in the primary market thus deceiving the consumer and causing big economic losses for the original manufacturers.

To counter-effect this, manufacturers of many genuine plastic products print a barcode to distinct their products from similar counterfeit products, however this is not easily applicable on all products as some might have irregular shapes and different sizes which makes them difficult to print on. The Solutions Seeker of this challenge has tried manual inkjet and laser printing for bar codes but this was not time-efficient.

The Challenge:
To design an automated laser printing device to efficiently print a barcode on Polyvinyl Chloride and Polypropylene (PVC & PP) products such as pipes and fittings, to help reduce the consumer’s confusion between the genuine and the counterfeit products and protect the Solution Seeker brand name. The device is to be fitted on the production line and  must fulfill the following requirements:

• Have a mechanism/add-on to adjust the positioning of every piece to be in  the right orientation before printing to guarantee the printing consistency

• Print on different types of products with irregular shapes

• Scanning Speed: 7000 mm/sec

• Overheat protector for safety

• Low maintenance requirements

Reward and Conditions:

The winner will receive a reward of 70,000 EGP provided by USAID’s Strengthening Entrepreneurship and Enterprise Development (SEED) Project, to implement the solution in cooperation with the solution seeker, according to the following conditions:

1. The solution should meet the aforementioned criteria;

2. The solution should include a clear plan of action including implementation stages, timeline, required tools/materials, estimated budget, and technical support required (if applicable);

3. The reward will be given in installments, in accordance to milestones set by the innovator(s) according to their plan of action;

4. As per our platform Terms and Conditions, in case the intellectual property rights are not registered, the innovator should include the minimum details required to judge the technical validity and feasibility of the solution without full technical specifications.

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