That’s the million dollar question! (Don’t worry. It won’t cost that much.) We’ve already outlined how you might benefit from the addition of an inkjet printer, and how to justify the cost of another piece of equipment, in a previous post. Now you have to match your workload and job requirements to the right machine configuration.

What’s the best inkjet machine solution?

That depends. Here are a few criteria used to get that answer:

Image quality – higher resolution means higher priced heads (or more passes).

  • Throughput – there are “multi-pass” versus “single-pass” options (more on that later).
  • Part size – limitations on height / width = machine size.
  • Image size = part size = machine size.
  • Substrate used – Regardless of the print technology, some substrates (PP & PE come to mind) still require pre-treatment for best image adhesion.
  • Number of colors required – dark substrates will need White base-coat layer, plus CMYK


What’s the best inkjet technology for me?

Do you need high volume / throughput with minimal part handling? Consider an automated conveyor, single-pass inkjet printer. You’ll typically get:

XD070 Single Pass Inkjet Printer

  • Up to 14″ per second of print speed
  • A print width that will be a minimum of 2.75″ and can be wider on a custom configuration.
  • Print resolutions up to 720 dpi in a single pass.

This is a great configuration for in-line applications, especially when pre-treatment is required. In many applications, you might require tooling of some sort to make sure parts are spaced and aligned consistently. Some units will incorporate a series of sensors to detect the part, and software that tells the heads when the part is in position for printing. We’ll help you with those.

Do you need higher resolution (up to 1200 dpi) but less speed? Perhaps a flatbed printer is your best option. These units offer:

  • An advantage for smaller / identical parts that can be placed in machined trays or nests.
  • A vacuum platen so you can print flat “stock.”
  • A series of print heads (arrays) on a rack that moves across the bed, printing and curing as it goes, giving you the capability of printing in a single direction, or printing in both directions, depending on your needs. It’s not as fast, but print resolution may be a higher priority.

With either of the above technologies, you will have the capability of adjusting print speeds, ink density / droplet size, head heights, and color hues. Speaking of colors, if you are printing process color on a dark substrate, you will need to print a white base layer first, but both technologies can accommodate that. In addition, it’s possible to print a clear-coat to protect the image or provide a more glossy appearance, but you’ll probably have to sacrifice one of the white arrays.

Do you only print in one color? Obviously, it’s possible to print monochrome or spot colors with inkjet, but keep in mind that it’s not practical to change or flush colors in the same array. With most high end industrial inkjets, ink is fed from bulk tanks, not cartridges (helps to keep the consumable costs down).

Therefore, if you are thinking of printing with one color only, monochrome machines are available, but you need to be very sure that you will only require that one color. Custom machines have been built with white and black arrays, so the customer can print either (and even mix both to get a gray hue).

Does your customer ask to make changes on press or repeat exact specs? Inkjet will usually provide the capability to manipulate the images at the machine, with the assistance of on-board graphic art software such as Adobe Illustrator or CorelDRAW. Some machines are capable of storing jobs (or job “queues”) so operators can simply select from a drop-down box. Custom machines are network-capable, so jobs can be entered remotely, and many in-line / automated units can be accessed remotely for both job entry and diagnostic capabilities.

Now you know a lot more about industrial inkjet printers than the average pad printer. Don’t forget: at EPSVT we build your industrial inkjet printer the same way we build your pad printer — from the ground up to your specifications. That makes it clean, efficient and engineered for accuracy and cost effectiveness.

Call our toll-free number 800-272-7764 or go on-line at Ink Adhesion Part 3: Ink Mixing, Contamination, Blooming and Mold Release Agents and click on Live Chat. We’ll start you down a two-lane inkjet/pad printer highway to greater success.

More often than not, the ceramic rings do not make it to expiration of the useful production life.  The more likely scenario for replacing them tend to be mishandling.  The rings will often be set down incorrectly or dropped causing a chip in the ring that renders it unusable.

If the ring is to make it to the end of its useful production life, one of the symptoms is heavy shadowing of ink on the cliché.  The lapped flat, when new, is approximately 0.005″ wide.  When the flat wears to a point where the mean width approaches the 0.010″ to 0.015″ width, you can safely say the ring has served you well.

In my experience you can see upwards of 5 – 6 years of useful life out of a ceramic ring (dependent on usage).

Check out our Pad Printing Machines at www.epsvt.com there you can also find more information about Engineered Printing Solutions custom solutions, standard pad printers, industrial inkjet, consumables and other auxiliary equipment. Email info@epsvt.com or call 1-800-272-7764 if you would like more information.

It is very important that whether it is an operator or maintenance that care is always taken when working with drop-on-demand print heads. They are generally expensive and delicate. If you want to maximize the production life of print heads only trained personal should be handling them. A filtration of some sort should be used between the supply of ink and print head to filter out impurities before reaching the head. For UV curable inks with heads stray UV should be shielded, and take precaution to keep from over exposure and curing of the face plate.

To maximize the production life of print heads care must be taken by keeping the head and especially the face plate clean. Use the appropriate flush for the ink set being used. Not all flush is compatible so if not certain call your ink supplier. Wipe the heads prior to printing with the flush and a clean lint free head wipe. Maintenance jetting or head cleaning should be done daily/weekly to exercise all jets in the head depending on usage. While printing all nozzles may not be printing so this exercise ensures all nozzles fire. It is then best to perform a jet test. By doing so you will actually print on to a substrate to witness a pattern/image of the individual nozzles firing. Doing this routine on a daily basis ensures you see a possible problem before it become unrecoverable. Many heads are recoverable if taken care of and signs of blockage are caught early enough and no physical damage to the head. Talk to your ink/head supplier for possible head recovery procedures or service.

Check out our industrial inkjet printers at www.epsvt.com there you can also find more information about Engineered Printing Solutions custom solutions, standard pad printers, industrial inkjet, consumables and other auxiliary equipment. Email info@epsvt.com or call 1-800-272-7764 if you would like more information.

There are two major differences between a polymer plate and a thin steel plate:

  1. Etching method.
    1. Printing Plates are etched by means of a UV exposure unit whereby a series of steps are taken to burn the image to the surface of the plate while exposing the surrounding area.  Depending on the type of polymer (alcohol or water wash) the unhardened material will be washed away to leave a positive impression of the image.
    2. The Printing Plates process is similar however to get to the end result the steel must see an acid bath for the etching process.
  2. Production life.
    1. There are many different types of polymer plate materials and associated estimated production lives.  This speaks to the importance of selection of a material that is cost-effective for the anticipated production run.  There are plate materials that are rated anywhere from 10k – 15k impressions with higher end materials can provide an estimated 60k – 70k impressions.
    2. The thin steel plate material has been estimated in the 500k+ impression range for durability.

The above factors have bearing on the cost of the material.  As you might imagine, the photosensitive polymers tend to be much cheaper, in particular on the lower end of the durability scale, while the thin steel plate’s durability tends to be a bit higher.

Thick steel plates are another option.  Thick steel plates are usually about 10mm thick and rated for a production life of close to one million cycles.

Want to learn more about printing plates?  Drop us a line!

While there are many types of security features used in product packaging, the ‘big three’ categories are usually defined as Overt, Covert and Forensic.

  • Overt – This type of security contains a visible feature, enabling packaging to be validated quickly and easily through visual inspection.  They are best used where the general public is a part of your policing in the field. These features are usually more readily available and therefore less secure, and include holograms, color shift inks, security fibers, floating images/ patterns, etc.
  • Covert – This type of security feature is typically placed in such a way as to be invisible to the naked eye.  The feature is revealed with certain tools or calibrated readers that cause special inks or graphics to react. Special effect inks, with Ultraviolet (UV) and Infrared (IR) phosphors dispersed, are popular methods used in currency and secure documents, but also include watermarks, time and temperature-sensitive inks, chemically reactive inks, etc.
  • Forensic – Forensic refers to scientific method of collecting and analyzing information.  These types of security features generally require a sample to be taken to a laboratory for a full analysis. Although highly secure, there are often thought to be very expensive to integrate (though this is not the case with the DNA Matrix™ security mark). Other examples include chemical or ionic taggants, nanoparticles, etc.

Packaging is the technology of enclosing or protecting products for distribution, sale and end-use. In the case of pharmaceuticals, packaging conveys valuable information and now, pedigree of the product. High prices make the pharma market most vulnerable to counterfeiting and product piracy, because the product manufacturing is a high-volume, and high-profit business.  Pharmaceutical companies typically invest heavily in R&D to develop new products, but the production of counterfeit drugs need not require large infrastructure or facilities.

The most commonly counterfeited drug in the world is a ‘lifestyle drug’ called Viagra, but in developing countries, the most counterfeited medicines are those used to treat life-threatening conditions such as malaria, tuberculosis and HIV/AIDS.  As one would expect, trade in these medicines is more prevalent in countries with weak drug regulation, fragmented supply chains and controls, scarcity or erratic supplies and unaffordable prices.

In the US, the Drug Quality and Security Act (DQSA) and the subsequent Drug Supply Chain Security Act (DSCQA) have added Track and Trace functionality to the pharmaceutical packaging process, in the form of 2D matrix barcodes, to ensure that unique product identifiers are placed on each and every drug package.  This form of security packaging provides advantages to manufacturers that are already placing batch/ date codes on their products, in that they can embed security features, such as the DNA Matrix™, into the same codes, at the same time and at very little cost.

With increasing sophistication, counterfeiters continue to advance and profit at the cost of public safety and company revenues. But, by implementing new packaging security measures, affordable and reliable brand protection is now closer than you think.

Mike Hayes is the Managing Director of DNA Technologies.  He has been helping customers to combat counterfeiting in print applications for over 10 years.

Want to learn more about packaging security and anti-counterfeiting measures? Drop us a line!

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[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]In the traditional sense there are very few tools required to operate pad printing machines.  In most cases you will find that a single M4 Allen key will be all that you put to the machine in order to get it setup and functioning.

However there are a few tools outside of formed metal that come in much more handy.  Common sense, diligence and a little elbow grease.  If the former two attributes are employed, from day one, the latter decreases exponentially as do the issues that impose themselves when allowing the process and machine to get a bit messy.

For instance, one of the leading causes of premature wear of Printing Plates is dried ink between the mount surface of the cliché and the cliché support.  Simply wiping both surfaces prior to setup contributes greatly to maximizing the production life of the cliché.  When ink infiltrates the surface between the two mating parts, the inkcup tends to work at what becomes a raised portion of the cliché.  You will find that a divot will develop as the inkcup shaves away, ever so slightly, the material.  The next time the cliché is used, the divot that has developed will catch ink.  If near on in the image area the cliché will be rendered useless.

Tip number one imparted during all training sessions is to keep the process and equipment as clean as is feasible.  Excess ink will seep into places that may seem innocuous at the time but down the road, after the ink has had a chance to dry and cure, it will act as an adhesive and beget many a cuss word as screws are stripped and adjustments made impossible due to parts sticking together.

Cleanliness makes for a happy process!

Want to learn more about pad printing?  Contact our Sales Team:

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Distortion means different things to different people.  Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

We will first speak to pad printing.

If we are to stay with a fairly standard definition of distortion … the printed image is the same size and clarity as the film from which the cliché was made were it overlaid … the most common causes are odd shape, e.g.: cylinder, obstructions in and around the print area, e.g.: raised elements of the product, knockouts, etc., and the product not being perpendicular to the print stroke.

For odd form printing the first line of defense is utilization of a pad that is a bit oversized for the job.  There begin to be issues that are tangential such as compression capability and cliché clearance but we will assume that the machine is capable.  In this case the larger the pad … the less distorted the image starts to become.

Obstructions can be overcome with design of a custom pad to circumvent obstructions coming in contact with the pad.

Part not perpendicular can sometimes be tricky but the easy answer is to adjust tooling for presenting the part so that the image area is as perpendicular as is possible.

In all cases, when it comes to a point where the pad size, tooling corrections, custom pads no longer help artwork distortion (distortion correction) can be used to account for predictable distortions introduced from the above defined issues.

You know there’s a threat to your brand, and you know you need to take action.  Crucial revenues are being lost each day, and your corporate reputation is at risk.  If you are in the pharmaceutical or medical device space, you know that Drug Quality and Security Act (DQSA) compliance is on the near term horizon.

While you may feel comfortable ensuring the authenticity of product in your own manufacturing facility, the real threat is in the distribution channel where many break points exist for counterfeiters to introduce fake product.

But, how do you get started with adding security features to your product packaging?  One of the key considerations is to find the right partner.

One of the best partners may already be in your camp – your trusted printer.  They already know your products and your daily challenges – such as brand colors, industry regulations, dry time, line speed, etc.

A lot of time has already been spent in presenting your packaging to the market.  There’s all the quality control measures to present the best looking graphics.  And the time spent on necessary approvals.  In many cases, securing your brand can be as simple as adding security taggants to your existing printing ink and processes.  This is where a partner that formulates their own ink can be beneficial.  Your stock ink can become security ink overnight, using the expertise of in house chemists and ink makers.

You printing partner can also advise on how to add more complex covert security features, like invisible barcodes, that allow only authorized personnel, using specially calibrated barcode readers, to detect and verify the codes.  With the data contained in the (invisible) barcode, track and trace functionality is enabled to follow any package from manufacture, right through to the end consumer.  All the while, protecting your consumer and your distribution channels from the appearance of counterfeit or illegitimate product.

In many cases, the ‘real estate’ on product packaging may be limited for adding security marks or codes.   Again, your printing partner can help here.  For example, the DNA Matrix™ security mark can be embedded into any ink and provide forensic level protection and proof of identity for your products.  It can be added to primary and secondary packaging, embedded in a logo, word mark or brand device, or applied as part of a serialization, numbering or barcoding process (overtly or covertly).

The counterfeit threat is real, but help is always close at hand.  Talk to your printer to see how simply anti-counterfeiting devices can be added to your current printing processes.  For more information, please contact Tim Scully sales@epsvt.com.

 

Mike Hayes is the Managing Director of DNA Technologies.  He has been helping customers to combat counterfeiting in print applications for over 10 years.

How long should my pad printing pad last?
Depending on how “rugged” a surface you’re printing on, a pad should last between 50,000 and 100,000 impressions. Improper use, careless machine operation or stray grit however, can decrease the pad’s life.

What should i watch for when I’m pad printing?
Make sure your substrate is free of sharp particles and debris. Avoid printing on sharp edges, which can puncture the pad. Use as little pad pressure (downstroke) as you can to pick up and deposit your image. (Tip: Too light an image could be an improperly etched cliche’)

What causes the most damage to pads?
Overly aggressive solvents, mechanical damage, poor storage practices, dirt/dust/debris and careless use are the most common causes of damage to pads. Additionally, some inks have aggressive solvents as part of their mix that will be absorbed by the pad and cause the image to “spread” on the pad. This isn’t permanent, as the solvent will evaporate if warmed or left to stand.

How should I clean my pad?
The best way to remove ink and debris from your pad surface is with regular packing tape. You may also use a mild solvent, such as alcohol. Always clean your pad before starting a printing job and never use a sharp object on your pad.

What is the best way to store my pad?
If a pad arrives in a protective shell or with a protective cover, remove it and do not reuse. It could trap grit and debris that can damage the pad. Never store a pad on top of or compressed against another pad. Handle and store your pads carefully.

What’s the nest way to extend my pad’s life?
We sell 8 oz. bottles of Pad Rejuvenator (Ask for Part Number PAD OIL when you call our customer service department.) The other way we recommend extending a pad’s life is to have two pads that you alternate one shift on, one shift off, to “rest” the pad and let it restore to its uncompressed state.

How do I prevent pad wear?
Correct design and tooling of fixtures will help eliminate pad wear … a major cause of image distortion.

 

Aside from looking smart while getting your print on…

The UV created by the curing mechanisms is no different than that of the sun.  Do not stare at the sun!  The jury is out on whether the reflected light is as harmful… it is always good practice to wear UV glasses when in a production environment that employs UV care equipment.