TECHNOLOGY FOCUS Operations & efficiency
LABEL PRODUCTION STAYS ON TRACK
Reelables has scaled production of its tracking labels using automation hardware and software from Beckhoff
A
pproximately 1.7 million packages are lost or stolen every day. Traditional tracking methods rely on barcodes or QR codes,
scanned at specific points, but they offer little visibility between stops. Enter Reelables, a start-up redefining logistics with its Bluetooth and 5G smart labels that provide real-time tracking from warehouse to doorstep. To meet growing demand, Reelables needed to increase its speed of production, which is where Beckhoff came in.
Reelables was founded by Brian Krejcarek,
an entrepreneur with a history of innovative technology. Originally imagined as a business- to-consumer (B2C) concept, Reelables pivoted to a business-to-business (B2B) model, recognising a bigger opportunity in sectors such as freight forwarding, logistics and warehousing.
The company’s goal was to create a tracking
label that was so low-cost and scalable, it could be attached to almost anything, eventually replacing traditional barcodes or QR codes with active trackers that constantly broadcast their location. Today, Reelables produces several types of smart labels, including Bluetooth tracking labels designed for asset tracking across a wide range of industries, and temperature-sensitive labels, accurate to 0.5ºC.
Logistics companies and end-customers benefit from the real-time tracking that Reelables’ labels offer and, unlike its competitors, the company’s labels, similar in shape and size to your credit card, come on reels that can be directly integrated into automated label application processes, replacing traditional paper or plastic labels entirely.
Oliver Boswall-Perks, Mechatronics Engineer, at Reelables, said: “Reelables is the only company producing labels that have an integrated printed battery. There are several advantages to this. First, our smart labels are categorised as packaging, meaning that they don’t need to be declared at customs. Second, the labels can pass through standard waste streams, aligning with the sustainability goals of our customers.”
Bradley McEwan, business development 22 July/August 2026 | Automation
manager at Beckhoff UK, said: “Reelables approached us with a great proof of concept – a smart Bluetooth label that was gaining popularity in the industry – but their early production set up wasn’t built for scale. They needed to shift from a manual process using non-industrial hardware to a fully-automated, high-speed manufacturing line.” Beckhoff looked at the company’s existing set-up, and spoke to the team about what they were hoping to achieve. From this, Beckhoff engineered a new system from a series of discrete manufacturing modules to which Beckhoff’s automation software could be onboarded.
The new system is built on a fully integrated Beckhoff TwinCAT and EtherCAT platform, incorporating a range of Beckhoff hardware and software components. This includes industrial PCs (IPCs), drives, real-time vision systems, human-machine-interface (HMI) touchscreens, and displays. Reelables also benefited from being an early adopter of TwinCAT Vision and Motion integration. Their system runs on the Software Platform Toolkit (SPT) Framework – the first deployment of its kind in the UK. The architecture supports easy expansion and integration of future machines, making it scalable. The framework provides a structured, modular approach to machine sequencing and is fully PackML-compliant. “What really made the difference was that Beckhoff wasn’t just selling us hardware,” added Boswall-Perks. “They helped create the
whole system – vision, motion, logic – all working together. That level of support is rare, especially for a company of our size.” Reelables also engaged Beckhoff’s engineering services. Beckhoff’s TwinCAT Vision system plays a critical role in quality control. It captures high-resolution images of each label as it moves through the line, calculating precise rotational and positional offsets, checking for defects, and ensuring that glue is dispensed with micron-level accuracy. Importantly, the system also flags and skips labels that would fail further downstream. The system now captures images of multiple labels simultaneously, enabling faster processing and greater consistency. This allows Reelables to maintain quality at high speed, now producing tens of thousands of labels per shift – a 150 per cent increased compared with the previous system.
“Switching to TwinCAT meant that we could integrate real-time vision into the process, something that we relied on humans for before,” said Boswall-Perks. “Now, not only is it faster, but the quality hasn’t dropped at all. In fact, it’s more consistent.”
Reelables is building a full digital record of every label, with data captured at multiple checkpoints throughout the production line. This feeds into an AI-driven analytics system designed to predict failure risk based on dispensing quality, chip placement, substrate condition, and environmental factors and more.
Beckhoff
www.beckhoff.co.uk
automationmagazine.co.uk
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