Thermal Inkjet Printers Need No Volatile Liquids

Coding and marking company Rotech Machines now has the distribution rights for APS's range of Apsolute thermal inkjet printers.

Using technology developed by Hewlett Packard, the printers are said to offer a sealed, mono-fluid, printhead that removes the need for the handling of bulk, volatile liquids.

Furthermore, unlike printers with a re-circulation system, only such fluid as is required to make the print needs to be purchased, said Rotech Machines.

The company added that, to date, the technology has been largely limited to printing on porous surfaces as only water-based inks could be used.

The development by APS of a range of alcohol-based inks, together with modifications to the cartridge driver to permit their handling, now allow the technology to print on to a range of non-porous materials.

The technology also has the ability to print on to blister foils and varnished cartons as found on many pharmaceutical production lines.

A further feature of the Apsolute system permits up to four printheads to be commanded from one controller, meaning that only one need be purchased per production line, it is claimed.

Two further features help to control and reduce the running costs of the printer, added Rotech Machines.

Once programmed, the system calculates how many prints will be made from one 42ml cartridge.

It is claimed that making subtle changes to the font or resolution can have a dramatic effect on ink usage and that allows the user to decide the print format that best meets business needs.

Secondly, with no moving parts, there is no maintenance and no disruption to a production line due to coder failure.

Rotech said that it can offer on-site demonstrations and production line trials as well as in-house print-testing of customers' packaging materials.

Back to top