Epson Color Label Printers and BarcodesInc Help Improve Efficiency at Upco Inc

Upco Inc., located in Claremore, Oklahoma, has the second largest factory in the world for the production of sucker rods. Sucker rods join together the surface and downhole components of a reciprocating piston pump installed in an oil well. With a total capacity to produce over thirty million feet of sucker rods per year, Upco is the only domestic supplier of sucker rods owned by employees.

To improve the efficiency of the plant, Upco required a system to identify quickly and easily the grade the quality of scrap in their plant. Having 7 or more different grades, employees were required to read black only labels which could create confusion and potential errors.

To reduce the potent for errors, Barcodes Inc of Chicago, IL recommended Upco purchase an Epson TM-C3400 SecurColor on-demand color label printer as well as recommended media for their application. To complete the solution, the Information Technology group in Upco wrote an application in Visual Basic to automatically select the correct color based on the grade of scrap and to print the label on the TM-C3400.

By adding a band of color, employees can easily identify the quality of the scrap, saving time, reducing errors and saving money.