Continuous Inkjet Printers: A Complete Guide to High-Speed Industrial Printing Reliable coding/marking systems are essential when producing and packing products. Printing systems that work for high-volume producers and print quickly and accurately are increasingly popular. Continuous ink jet printers, which will print codes, dates, and other essential information about the product onto the surfaces of many different products at the same time as they travel along the production line, is one of the biggest ways to do this. Continuous ink-jet technology is used in many different industries such as food and beverage, pharmaceuticals, electronics, automotive, and packaging. The technology can print on practically any type of surface with speed and accuracy, making it one of the most common industrial solutions for manufacturers.
What Are Continuous Inkjet Printers? Continuous inkjet printers (CIJ), formerly known as CIJ, utilize an uninterrupted flow of droplet-size ink and will utilize droplet-based printing to print letters, numbers, bar codes, and other markings on products or packaging. This printing works using a small volume of highly pressurized fluid pushed through a small nozzle rapidly, which creates a continuous stream of individual ink droplets. A small number of droplets are electrically charged so that they can be directed toward the surface of the product to create the necessary print pattern; however, uncharged droplets are collected and environmentally friendly. As the ink stream continuously flows from the CIJ printer, it allows for high-speed printing processes and printing on moving production lines can occur at full production rates, which results in total downtimes as the manufacturing operation continues.
How Continuous Inkjet Printing Works Continuous inkjet printers perform a series of steps during operation: 1. Creating the Ink Stream
The ink stream begins with a small nozzle that pumps out ink creating a continuous stream. At the same time, a high-frequency vibrating piezoelectric crystal breaks the ink stream into thousands of equally can be printed. 2. Applying Electric Charges to the Droplets Once the droplets have been created, the droplets are given an electric charge. The charge is based on what will be printed when the droplet is placed onto a product. 3. Droplet Deflection The charged droplets travel through an electric field generated by two plates to deflect the droplet in the desired direction. 4. Recovery of Ink Droplets and Return to Ink Reservoirs. Unused ink droplets are collected in a gutter system and are returned to the ink reservoir for further use. This feature of the continuous inkjet printer reduces the amount of wasted ink because of the extensive use of ink being produced by this method. All of these processes are performed on an ongoing basis, and occur at a very fast pace in order to produce thousands of ink droplet per second.
Key Benefits of Continuous Inkjet Printers One of the primary advantages of Continuous Inkjet technology is its high-speed printing capabilities. Continuous Inkjet printers can print at high speeds without interfering with the speed of production lines in order to mark products produced on those fast production lines. Continuous Inkjet printers are capable of producing large amounts of products each day.
Another key factor associated with Continuous Inkjet printing is that it is a noncontact printing process. As the printhead never makes contact with the surface of the item being printed, Continuous Inkjet prints can be made on fragile products without causing damage, as well as being able to print on uneven surfaces and/or rounded surfaces. Continuous Inkjet also provides manufacturers with the ability to print on many different types of materials. Some examples of materials that can be printed on using Continuous Inkjet include: • Split
• Glass • Metal • Paper • Cardboard • Wood • Rubber Manufacturers that use Continuous Inkjet will have the ability to print a variety of products on one printer.
Reliable Long-Term Operation Continuous ink jet printers are made for long-term use in manufacturing and industrial environments due to their continuously flowing inks. This continual movement prevents thousands of droplets of ink from drying inside the printer’s ink reservoir, which lowers the chance of clogging up the print head.
Most CIJ systems have longer run times with less preventative maintenance than other types of CIJ printers, which results in being more reliable within the production environment.
Proper Usage of Ink By recirculating unused ink droplets back into the ink system, CIJ manufacturers are able to greatly reduce waste & cost; therefore creating a closed loop ink system that minimizes waste and provides an easily pre-manufactured supply of high-quality and viscosity inks.
Common Applications of Continuous Inkjet Printers Continuous inkjet (CIJ) printers are commonly utilized in a variety of applications where products must be identified and tracked for sufficiency.
Food and Beverage Applications Utilize CIJ Printing CIJ printers are a common method of producing best by dates, lot codes, and production codes on the packaging of beverages (glass, aluminum, and plastic cans, cardboard cartons, and flexible packaging) by food and beverage manufacturers.
Pharmaceutical Applications Utilize CIJ Printing CIJ Printing is common in the pharmaceutical industry because it is used to provide lot numbers, expiration dates, and regulatory information on the packaging of pharmaceuticals.
Electronic Manufacturing Applications Utilize CIJ Printing Small parts such as circuit boards and connectors need to be marked clearly and accurately. Continuous inkjet (CIJ) printing can produce very small text without damaging fragile parts.
Automotive Applications Utilize CIJ Printing Automotive manufacturing companies use Continuous Inkjet printers to print serial numbers, manufacturing data, and traceability data on the component parts of an automotive vehicle.
Packaging and Logistics Applications Utilize CIJ Printing Continuous Inkjet (CIJ) printers can be used to print barcodes, tracking numbers, and other production information directly onto boxes, containers, and packaging materials.
Why Continuous Inkjet Printing Is Important for Modern Manufacturing Traceability and identification of products is vital to controlling quality and complying with regulations. Continuous inkjet printing provides a method of printing\/applying variable data (e.g. dates, batch codes and serial numbers) directly onto products as they move along production lines. These types of printers eliminate printed labels and allow for real-time printing, thereby reducing the cost of doing business and simplifying packaging processes. Continuous inkjet printers can also be integrated into automated systems and production software enabling them to be used in modern smart factories.
In Summary Continuous inkjet printers play an important role in product coding/industrial printing. Because of their high throughput, versatility and dependability, they provide a good solution for our manufacturing operations that need product labels to be accurately & consistently produced. Continuous inkjet technology allows our customers (from food packaging to automotive components) to produce essential product information quickly and efficiently. Moreover, because these printers can print on a multitude of surfaces and can continuously run on fast paced production lines, they remain among the most practical and widely adopted technologies for industry printing.
