Surprisingly clean and safe: ink jet coding solutions from MARKEM
Ink jet printers and coders create characters and images by emitting or directing drops of ink in a pattern that is determined by a computer. This form of digital printing is fast and can be updated in real time, so one package can carry a different code from the one before it.
Most ink jet coders operate using continuous inkjet technology, with liquid inks that are made with flammable toxic solvents. These inks require the addition of make-up solvents during operation, and use still more solvents for cleaning. Operating a continuous ink jet system creates messes and causes packaging line downtime while everything is stopped, cleaned and restarted. Liquid inks can seep into substrates and may not dry quickly enough for line speeds, resulting in smears, smudges, and other readability problems.
What makes MARKEM ink jet coders different?
We employ a drop-on-demand printing technology in our unique phase-change ink jet coding. We start with Touch Dry® inks, our exclusive non-toxic, solvent-free inks that are clean, solid blocks of ink at room temperature. These blocks are added to the reservoirs in our ink jet coders, where they are heated and turned to liquid a little at a time.
Our drop-on-demand technology ejects the melted liquid ink droplets, on an "as needed" basis, from a printhead that consists of many tiny ink nozzles. Because the drops are ejected only when needed and directly onto the substrate, there is no need for an ink recirculation system. Our drop-on-demand ink nozzles are each capable of emitting roughly 10,000 to 30,000 drops of ink per second. Piezo-electric elements turn the nozzles on and off in the appropriate order to create numbers, letters and other required characters and images.
The drops of Touch Dry ink are dry as soon as they hit the substrate, so there's never any weeping or smudging. Codes are crisp, images are clean, and bar codes are 100% scannable.
Exclusive non-toxic, solvent-free Touch Dry inks are solid at room temperature heating melts the solid inks as needed, reducing spills and cleanup Touch Dry inks are clean and easy to handle piezo-electric ink jet technology ensures reliable operation and consistent drop size drop-on-demand technology keeps pace with the high speed requirements of today's packaging lines For inkjet applications outside of the Consumer Packaged Goods or Printed Circuit Board industries please visit the website of AelloraT Digital, a MARKEM company, to learn more about their offerings.
