How does a Continuous Inkjet Printer work?
The Continuous Inkjet printing process works by expelling electrically charged ink droplets from a printhead nozzle and passing them through an electric field to deflect individual droplets to make up text or codes.
Working Principles of a CIJ
The jet of ink is broken into drops inside the chamber through a pulse from a piezoelectric crystal. Ink droplets that are required for printing are charged by an electrode as they break off from the ink jet, and the CIJ printer re-circulates the remaining ink.
The droplets, now charged, pass through an electrostatic field between deflector plates, a combination of speed and charge determines the position of the droplet on the product or packaging substrate to form the required digits or code.
Up to 120,000 of these tiny droplets are expelled every second – half the diameter of a human hair - and this is done without contact to the material being printed on.
Continuous Inkjet Coding & Marking
Inkjet coding & marking is ideal for individual products on production lines to automatically print variable information like best before and expiry date coding, product identification e.g. printing barcodes or marking batch numbers for traceability. Linx Inkjet coders can mark onto almost any material, regardless of porosity, size, shape, and texture.
A continuous inkjet printer saves waste, time and money by removing the need for manual marking or pre-printed packaging and provides immediate traceability or compliance with increasingly strict legislation in industries such as food, beverage and pharmaceuticals.
