For decades, CIJ was the leading technology for industrial marking. TIJ technology may be far easier to use, service and maintenance-free, and kinder to the environment, but struggled to print on more than a select group of non-porous materials. But over the past five years, advances in TIJ printers have seen them challenge CIJ as the preferred choice of industrial printer.
The game changer? Inks.
The core TIJ technology has changed little over the years. But edding’s expert range of solvent-based inks have made it possible to achieve high quality, permanent print results on the majority of non-porous materials, including glass, metal and 80% of plastics. But edding’s inks don’t just match what’s achievable with CIJ. At edding, innovation is driven by finding novel solutions to customers’ problems, making what was previously impossible, possible.
Printing on dark substrates
Listening to customers describe the difficulty of printing on dark backgrounds, edding developed one of the first ranges of pigment-based inks for TIJ. Pigment-based inks achieve far superior results to dye-based inks on dark backgrounds, but are also known to have problems such as settling in the cartridge and clogging the printhead. edding has developed not just one, but three pigment-based inks (in yellow, white and light-blue) that overcome these issues, and achieve perfect, clear print results against the darkest backgrounds.
UV-resistant
Exposed to ultraviolet (UV) radiation in light, over time inks fade - a problem for anyone storing marked goods in sunlight long-term. A problem that’s solved with edding’s light blue pigment-based ink, which achieves the industry’s highest level of UV resistance – Blue Wool Scale level 8.
Light blue ink is uniquely readable on a wide variety of backgrounds and offers unparalleled lightfastness. But few industrial printer suppliers can provide it as it’s a difficult ink formulation to get right. edding has.
Solvent-resistant inks
For customers in industries such as Food and Beverage and Automotive, there’s a pressing need for inks resistant to the solvents and alcohol found in cleaning products in constant use on their production floor. edding has developed the first range of solvent-resistant inks for use on a TIJ printer.
Food grade inks
Health, regulatory and environmental concerns are all growing demand for inks safe for human consumption. edding Food Grade Red and Food Grade Brown are the perfect solution for printing directly on food surfaces. And also open up new areas of primary packaging for marking previously unavailable due to fears about non-food safe ink reaching the product.
Anti-counterfeit printing
edding’s specialist ultraviolet inks enable printing of coding on packaging only visible under a UV light, providing protection against counterfeits.
edding compact printers already offer one of the largest ink portfolios of any industrial printer, and they aren’t stopping there. edding’s ink experts are continuing to engineer inks for more and more substrates and applications.
Here you can access our ink assortment.
To find out how edding’s inks can meet your coding needs contact us to speak to our experts.
