Big Mike called us earlier this year looking to upgrade his company's part marking process. Big Mike's Sto N Sho, also known as Mike McKinney, produces a wide variety of custom license plate brackets . His products are sold all over the country through wholesalers and auto parts retailers.
These brackets have multiple components that are part of one complete set which must be labeled with the appropriate part numbers in the event they are separated, or replacement components needed. As the parts are not set up on any automated conveyance system, this had always been done with a manual rubber stamp.
Most of the brackets are black or a dark metal that require a bright colored ink in order to be clearly visible. This made having a colored ink option a nonstarter for Mike as he went in search of a way to streamline their production efficiency.
Mike found our website while searching for a part marking method that would meet his requirements and improve efficiency at their facility. After reviewing our various coding systems, the SNEED-JET® Titan T6 handheld printer is what caught his eye. He watched many of our customer application videos and felt like this was a viable option for him.
Mike and I initially agreed that the first step was to complete preliminary print samples on his parts. Mike sent in parts and components which we tested with the SNEED-JET® ST-320 white ink to ensure the dry time and print quality met Mike’s quality standards. Once Mike saw the high resolution print image from the 300DPI Hewlett-Packard® print engine, he was sold and ordered a unit the same day.
Mike’s team has been using the T6 for a couple months now and couldn’t be happier with the increase in efficiency they have experienced with this new tool. Beyond that, the consistency of the print quality on every marked part is a drastic improvement over what they ever experienced with the rubber stamps.
In the words of Big Mike in his video below, "Definitely beat the old way of doing it."