On March 1, 2019, mandatory registration of stores and manufacturers in the Chestniy ZNAK National Digital Labeling System was launched.
From July 1, 2019, the unmarked products production was discontinued.
We have developed several solutions especially for tobacco manufacturers in collaboration with industrial printers and machine vision systems manufacturers. The solutions are a VEKAS-ACS software and hardware system that fully meets the government order dated December 28, 2018 N2963-r, federal law FZ N 381 and the Chestniy znak requirement for tobacco industry.
Solutions fall into two categories – automatic and manual systems.
Automatic systems enable full automatisation of marking, reading codes, control, etc. Designed for high-performance lines.
Manual systems are the lightest solutions that allow, using a computer, handheld barcode scanner or hand-fed autoscanner and software, to label, control, and then enter the information into a database.
Tobacco production technological process
List of control objects
The tobacco accounting system is designed for piecewise quantitative accounting of manufactured products, accounting for products as part of boxes and pallets.
The following objects and procedures are subject to registration:
single packs;
packs in blocks (blocks);
blocks in boxes.
Accounting automation object
The object – an automatic system of piece accounting (ACS PC) has three control points for finished products: pack area, block formation zone and box formation zone. The product passes each of the areas, the finished product is automatically recorded.
Pack area
When the product passes the pack area the following technological operations are carried out:
applying a code on the pack by a DataMatrix laser printer;
controlling the application of the DataMatrix code using a verification scanner;
emergency line stop in case of multiple error of DataMatrix code verification.
Block forming area
The following technological operations take place in the block formation area:
placing several packs in one block;
reading DataMatrix codes of all packs in one block;
controlling the codes of all packs of the block read by DataMatrix;
Generating a label in the software with the DataMatrix code for the block;
sending a task to print a label to a thermal transfer printer;
aggregating printed DataMatrix box code with DataMatrix packages codes;
rejecting blocks with errors in reading or checking the DataMatrix codes.
Box forming area
The following technological operations take place in the box formation area:
adding DataMatrix block codes to the list of formed boxes;
stacking blocks in a box;
generating a label for a box in software;
sending a task to print a label with a box code to a thermal transfer printer;
DataMatrix aggregation of block codes and printed box code.
System’s main functions
Obtaining codes from the Tobacco products marking and circulation information system;
Transferring DataMatrix pack codes to the printer;
Applying DataMatrix code to the pack;
Controlling the application of the DataMatrix code to the pack;
Emergency line stop upon detection of pack with unreadable codes;
Reading DataMatrix codes of packs from the block;
Generating DataMatrix code and accompanying human-readable information on the block label;
Reading the block code printed on the DataMatrix label;
Associating the DataMatrix code of the block with the DataMatrix codes of the packs inside;
Rejecting blocks with unreadable DataMatrix pack codes;
Rejecting blocks in case of inconsistency of the DataMatrix codes of the packs with the codes obtained from the information system;
Controlling the correspondence of the number of blocks in the box to the specified value;
Generating a barcode and related human-readable information on the box label;
Reading the box barcode printed on the label;
Associating the box barcode with the DataMatrix codes of the blocks inside
Determining the rejection reason, informing the line operator of necessity to perform regulated actions;
Maintaining a database and receiving statistical reports (all actions and events);
Forming and storing archive recipes for a technological line and selecting the current one;
Generating report files with any given structure and transferring over the network;
Ability to import/export data with company’s data systems according to a separately agreed-to algorithm;
User-friendly human-machine interface with different access levels.
