The content of this article is everything you will need to know about inkjet printers and their use.
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An inkjet printer is a printing system that projects small, minute droplets of ink onto product surfaces to form letters, numbers, images, shapes, and codes. They are used for printing expiration dates, lot numbers, serial numbers, barcodes, and date codes on any type of surface including paper, plastic, wire, cable, metal, resin or glass. The process of an inkjet printer involves the creation of small droplets that are pushed out through a nozzle that rapidly ejects the droplets in a uniform pattern on a target surface.
Industrial use of inkjet printers includes continuous inkjet printers that spray ink particles and are used in production lines for labeling products, parts, and components. All items that are manufactured have to be identified for warehousing, shipment, and sale. Continuous inkjet printers automate the process to make it more convenient and efficient. Products to be labeled pass through a programmed printer that rapidly places the necessary data on an item.
The typical inkjet printer is found in a home or office where it prints reports, letters, forms, or other types of materials. This aspect of inkjet printers has been a revelation for students and office workers. Although this is a common use of inkjet printers, their broader and more vital use is as a means for labeling and identifying a wide assortment of products. These more dynamic inkjet printers are industrial tools that are a labor-saving method that removes the need for workers to stamp or place labels on products.
The general categories for industrial inkjet printers are continuous (CIJ) and drop-on-demand (DOD) that operate without user interference. CIJs are ideal for high-volume, high-speed operations that require immediate response in a specified amount of time. DOD inkjet printers dispense ink when needed and have variable drop sizes, allow for grayscale printing, create photorealistic images, and produce vivid vibrant colors on porous surfaces.
Continuous inkjet printers are a unique form of industrial tool that are used to label and mark products. Numbers, images, symbols, and barcodes are placed on products by ink that is discharged from the inkjet printer onto the target item. It is a non-contact process that prints clear, crisp, flawless images without damaging or harming the targeted item.
The process for a continuous inkjet printer involves supplying the print head with ink from the controller where it is fed into a nozzle that discharges ink droplets in the appropriate pattern. Ink is oscillated and discharged after being given a negative electrostatic charge. The ink forms an ink column and is saturated with a negative charge, which changes the ink into particles that are separated from the column.
The ink particles pass two electrodes that generate a high voltage electric field. Bending force acts on the particles in accordance with their electrostatic charge, which changes the direction that they move. During this process, the target or print head moves to print the desired image or design.
The key to the continuous inkjet printing process is the fragmentation of the ink such that it breaks down into tiny minuscule droplets. In order to achieve the necessary fragmentation, the ink is subjected to high frequency vibrations that produces a stream of ink droplets that are charged by an electrostatic field, which ensures a steady and accurate flow of droplets. The end result is the printing of the desired image on the targeted product.
Continuous inkjet printers are widely used for industrial applications due to their high speed and accuracy. They are an ideal tool for modern manufacturing that relies on fast moving and high-quality production. Since the print head does not make contact with the surface of an item or product, continuous inkjet printing can place an image on curved, uneven, and delicate surfaces. In keeping with the fast pace of production, the dispensed ink dries immediately for exceptional adhesion.
With drop-on-demand inkjet printing, ink is dispensed from the print head when needed in variable drop sizes. Unlike continuous inkjet printers, drop-on-demand creates droplets of ink by heating the ink to create an ink vapor or through the use of electric voltage. Regardless of the method, the print speed of DOD printers is slower, which makes them capable of printing a greater amount of information.
The main forms of DOD printing are thermal and piezo, which use pressure waves to push ink drops through their nozzles. The difference between the two forms is in regard to how they create their ink droplets with thermal DOD inkjet printing using heat to create droplets while piezo DOD inkjet printing uses electric voltage. The popularity of DOD inkjet printing is due to how ink is used, a factor that lowers the cost of printing.
The print heads for piezo DOD inkjet printers are crystals that have electric current applied to them, which causes the crystals to expand and force ink onto the surface of the target. The ink is carried in a chamber that is connected to the printed head. The name for piezo DOD inkjet printers comes from the piezoelectric effect that is used to apply the ink.
The piezoelectric effect creates voltage in the surface of the crystals that deforms the crystals and the printing nozzle. Pressure is applied to the ink, which causes the print head to eject droplets. When the polarity of the voltage is reversed, the flow of ink from the nozzle stops. The modes that are used to apply the ink are bend and shear where the bend mode applies the ink using a two-way expansion while the shear mode uses pressure waves.
Piezo DOD inkjet printers are more expensive than thermal DOD inkjet printers. They use water-based inks, which slows down the printing process. The piezo DOD inkjet process has several benefits including high resolution printing, greater control of ink release, the capability of fine printing, and longevity.
Thermal DOD inkjet printers use a resistor to heat its ink to 300°C (572°F) until vapor bubbles are formed. The heating element is located in the ink chamber above the nozzle. The formation of the vapor bubbles creates pressure that pushes the ink to the nozzle from which it is released as printing droplets. The changing of the ink from liquid to gas increases the volume of the ink creating the high pressure that sends the ink droplets through the nozzle.
The process of a thermal DOD inkjet printer is exceptionally accurate, cools rapidly, and immediately returns the vaporized ink to a liquid state. The vacuum that is created by the removal of the ink draws in more ink for a continuous uninterrupted flow. The delivery of ink to the nozzle is controlled by positive and negative pressure in the ink chamber located behind the nozzle.
The small droplets of ink that are fired by the nozzle of a thermal inkjet printer are able to create high resolution images due to the rapid heating and ejection of the ink. Thermal inkjet printers are able to print on coated card stock, film, plastics, and cardboard or any type of surface or material.
The wide use of TIJ printers is due to their small footprint and easy integration into any assembly and packaging operation. The ink for thermal inkjet printers is contained in print cartridges that have coil heating elements. The design of the cartridges makes ink change over easy and convenient, which reduces downtime and helps keep a line running.
Thermal inkjet printers have 300 to 600 nozzles that deposit the proper amount of ink in the right location on the target surface. The four base colors, cyan, black, magenta, and yellow, are combined in differ mixtures to create the designed colors. The movement of the print heads occurs at a fraction of an inch at a time. The process happens quickly in a simple continuous motion.
One of the challenges for the printing industry is the ability to produce clear, sharp, and accurate large format prints on multiple types of materials. The development of flatbed inkjet printers has made it possible to produce large format prints with the necessary clarity and precision. The capabilities of flatbed inkjet printing extend beyond standard inkjet printing and expands the capabilities of inkjet printing to a higher level.
The printing beds of flatbed inkjet printers are adjustable such that they can accommodate any size of substrate, making it possible to print on large thin sheets of paper and thick pieces of wood with some versions capable of printing on materials that are over seven inches thick. The process of flatbed inkjet printing involves placing a flat piece of substrate on the printing bed and using the inkjet printing process to apply an image to the target surface. Flatbed inkjet printing can be used with any type of surface including paper, glass, wood, metal, plastic, and heavy cardboard.
Part of the printing technologies that are used by inkjet flatbed printing involve ultraviolet (UV) inkjet printing, which make use of UV curable inks that instantly cure when exposed to UV light.
Due to the size of the materials to be printed, flatbed inkjet printing involves various steps in order to ensure the quality of the printing. It is an automated process that requires workers to properly load the substrate and program the printer. This aspect of the process is necessary since human involvement can interfere with the quality of the final product.
Image Preparation – Images for flatbed printers are created using graphic design software that provide design parameters in accordance with a company’s requirements. Descriptions, dimensions, and images are created using one of the various design software products and transferred to a digital file for downloading into the printer.
Aside from its ability to print any size image, flatbed inkjet printing has several advantages. The original process for printing large images involved several different processes with the most common being printing small portions of the image and putting the small pieces together in the proper order. It was an expensive and labor-intensive method that took days to complete. The introduction of flatbed inkjet printing has drastically lowered the cost of printing large images and increased the quality of the final prints.
With single pass inkjet printers, printing occurs once as the item to be printed passes below a series of print heads. It is a high throughput process that is used for mass production with the resolution and part size used to determine the throughput speed. In certain situations, the speed of single pass inkjet printers can be as high as 50 inches per second or higher.
Print heads with 360 nozzles per inch can place 360 dots per inch (DPI) in the cross-track direction and can have higher resolution in the longitudinal direction. Higher resolution is possible with the addition of more print heads in the print direction. The speed of single pass inkjet printers is affected by an increase in the number of print heads, which increases the print swath.
Single pass inkjet printing has revolutionized the printing industry by using cutting edge technology to print a complete image in one pass. The main selling point for single pass inkjet printing is its speed, which is far superior to traditional time-consuming printing. Any print job can be completed in minutes, a factor that translates to an increase in production and faster turnaround times.
A basic concern when referring to a process happening faster is the quality of the product being produced. Although single pass inkjet printing is quicker, the printed images produced by the process are of the highest quality.
The process for single pass inkjet printers involves the use of conveyors upon which the targets for the printing are loaded. The speeds of the conveyors are adjusted to meet the speed of the print heads and are manufactured in a wide variety of configurations from table top models to ones that can be inserted in an assembly line.
The different types of inkjet printers that are described above are a sampling of the configurations and types of inkjet printers that are used by manufacturers to label and identify their products. From these general types of inkjet printers, there is an endless list of different forms of inkjet printers from ones that are standard to ones that are customized to meet the unique needs of an application or product.
One of the essential aspects of product production is the printing of information regarding the product in the form of batch codes, lot codes, and date codes that are used to identify the product for customers and manufacturers. In order to properly identify a product, it is necessary to print information regarding the product on the product, a process that is completed using inkjet printers.
Inkjet printers are the most common method used to apply barcodes to packages and labels using thermal transfer. Direct part marking (DPM) places the barcode directly on a product without having to print it on a label, which is important for medical devices, auto parts, and durable goods. DPM codes and markings are permanent since they would require a great deal of effort to remove them
Date codes are alphanumeric codes that are printed on products to indicate the date and year a product was produced. With fresh foods, date codes are printed on labels and attached to the food to identify the date that the food needs to be sold. The process of identifying dates on products is completed using inkjet printers due to the low cost of the printing process. The inkjet printing process makes it easy to locate a date code in any area of product using adjustable print heads.
The use of inkjet date coders is due to their speed, ability to print variable data, high resolution, exceptional print quality, and capability of printing on any substrate. The key aspect of all forms of inkjet date code printers is their speed, which is a necessary part of modern production.
With the advent of the DataMatrix code, a code that is like a barcode but provides more information, inkjet printing has become a more vital part of product identification, especially in the pharmaceutical industry that has to adhere to specific labeling and identification standards. The challenges of package printing include printing on blister foils and cartons. These types of materials requires the use of the non-contact printing method of inkjet printing to avoid harm to the packaging material.
Laserjet and inkjet printers are two of the most common forms of printers. Although they serve the same function, their processes and materials vary in several ways. Both forms of printers are used for home and industrial printing. The selection of which printer to use for a project or application is dependent on several factors.
Inkjet printers use a pigment-based ink that is applied to the surface of items using droplets that are formed in an ink chamber before being sent to a print head to be ejected onto the surface of the targeted material. Laserjet printers use a powdery material referred to as toner, which is applied in a mixture to create various images and colors. Both forms of printers use the basic four ink colors of magenta, black, yellow, and cyan that are mixed to create all of the colors on the color wheel.
Laserjet printers and inkjet printers use dots to produce images, figures, numbers, and letters on the surface of materials. Each printer has a unique method for forming the dots that they use. Inkjet printers have nozzles in their print heads that are connected to an ink chamber using various methods to create droplets of ink to be sent through a nozzle to the target material.
The use of ink makes it possible for inkjet printers to create brightly colored images with exceptionally high resolution. Inkjet printers have found use as home and office printers as well as high production printers and are capable of printing on any type of surface. Their variability and many configurations have made inkjet printers one of the most popular forms of printing method.
The ink droplets produced by an inkjet printer are 100 microns (µ), which is a little bit larger than the size of a hair follicle. These droplets are rapidly applied to the surface of the target material from multiple print heads such that the printing process happens quickly and efficiently. Droplets for inkjet printers are measured in picoliters, which is a trillionth of a liter.
Laserjet printers use toner, which is a powder that is poured into a receptacle in the printer. As with inkjet printers, laserjet printers have digital images downloaded into their printer system. The printer reads the provided data and sends it to a photosensitive drum. The data is transferred to the surface of a material using static electricity to position the dots of toner in the correct formation to create the desired image. The key to the process is heat and pressure that fuse the toner to the material, which is generally paper.
Depending on the size of a laserjet printer, toner is stored in a cartridge. It is a granulated medium that resembles powder but is heavier than powder. In the printing process, toner is collected by the drum of the printer that is electrically charged. The paper for a printing project is heated to melt the toner particles. Of the various differences between inkjet and laserjet printers, the toner is the most obvious since it is not a liquid and lasts longer than the ink of inkjet printers.
Common laserjet printers are not used for high volume production since they do not have the versatility to print on multiple types of surfaces or the capability to be engineered in multiple configurations, which inkjet printers are more than capable of. Laserjet printers are normally used in offices, homes, and warehouses for printing documents and labels that are applied to items for identification.
A form of industrial printing that does use a laser printer that projects a laser beam onto the surface of a material. The laser bean heats the surface of the material, which changes the color of the material to create a contrast and evaporates a portion of the surface. It is a process that is restricted to specific materials that can withstand the heat of the laser. Unlike inkjet printing, laser marking is an aggressive contact process that changes the surface of the targeted item. It is ideal for marking metal, glass, and other hard surfaces.
The wide use of inkjet printers is due to the high resolution and high-quality images the process produces. In addition, there are very few restrictions on the types of materials on which inkjet printers can print, which is an aspect of the process that makes it ideal for industrial applications.
Aside from the quality of the printing by inkjet printers, they are valued for their lower cost and the short time necessary to produce a print. Inkjet printers can be adapted to any size printing process and normally use added processes to ensure the lasting quality of printed materials.
Since inkjet printers use high volume ink droplets to produce prints, the quality of the produced prints is sharp and clear with vibrant colors. It is this aspect of the printing process, which makes printed images and words easy to read and makes the process ideal for so many industries.
There are several factors that make inkjet printing less expensive than other methods. The main factor is the speed at which materials are produced, which is far less than any other method of printing. Traditional ink processes require the creation of plates, set up, and labor that increase the time and cost of printing.
The efficient design of inkjet printers removes the need for regular maintenance. The only aspect of the printer that has to be monitored is the ink, which is used rapidly and requires regular replacement.
Inkjet printers use less energy and are environmentally safe. The efficient design of inkjet printers enables them to print continuously using very little energy and without producing any form of waste.
The size of inkjet printers makes it possible to position them in any location. They are compact with small working components that produce high quality prints. This aspect of inkjet printers makes them adaptable to any conditions or environment.
Unlike other forms of printers, such as laserjet printers, inkjet printers are compact and flexible with the ability to be connected to a wide format printer or a conveyor belt for labeling products and packages. They can be used by large corporations for preparing products for shipment and small enterprises for identifying their products.
Inkjet printing is a non-contact method of printing that creates images, shapes, forms, and letters by propelling droplets of ink onto the surface of an item.
The inkjet printing process is a low cost, fast, and environmentally safe method of printing that makes use of all of its ink without creating toxic or harmful fumes.
The two basic forms of inkjet printing are continuous inkjet printing and drop-on-demand inkjet printing, which vary in how they place droplets of ink on a surface.
One of the major benefits of inkjet printing is its ability to print on any surface, regardless of the surface’s texture or smoothness. Inkjet printing can print on glass, plastic, cardboard, fabrics, metal, and paper.
A modern use of inkjet printing is in the printing of large banners and billboards using flatbed inkjet printing that uses multiple print heads to print any size image for display in a short period of time.
One of the main features of inkjet printing is the time it takes to print an image as well as the removal of the need for preparation. Traditional printing methods require setup time and mechanical adjustments to begin the printing process. Inkjet printing uses computer generated images that are programmed into the system of the printer to begin the printing process.
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