What Is Industrial Inkjet Printing?

 Inkjet technology is the process where a print-head ejects tiny droplets of ink onto a substrate without the print-head actually making any sort of physical contact. Dots of different colored inks combine to give photo-quality images. The main challenge lies in achieving a high level of precision and reliability. The dots are smaller than 70 microns and hence, the heads need to be positioned precisely in order to achieve good resolution and print quality. This precision is only achieved using a combination of science, technology and design. Although inkjet technology has been around since the 1950s, its application in an industrial environment is being explored only of late.


Industrial inkjet printing systems are broadly classified into two categories-continuous printing (CIJ) or drop on demand (DOD), with variants within each classification. In the case of continuous inkjet technology, the drops are ejected continuously from the print-head, whereas in case of drop on demand technology, drops are ejected from the print-head only when required.


In the case of CIJ, a pump directs fluid from a reservoir onto one or more small nozzles, which eject a continuous stream of drops at very high frequency. The high frequency is achieved using a piezoelectric crystal. The drops are then made to pass through electrodes, which impart a charge onto each drop and then made to pass through a deflection plate. An electrostatic field is maintained and this determines which drops are ejected and which drop is collected and re-circulated back. Since piezoelectric technology is used, a high-speed inkjet printing is possible. Further, the high velocity of the drops allows for a relatively large distance between the print-head and the substrate.


The main advantage of this technique lies in the fact that high printing speeds can be achieved. The inks used are solvent-based and this means that good adhesion and rapid drying are possible However, the speed is achieved at the cost of resolution. High maintenance is required for the print-heads and the technology is not environmentally friendly.


In the case of drop-on-demand technology, the drops are ejected only when required. The drops are created when a pressure-pulse is generated. In one sub-variant called thermal inkjet technology, drops are formed by rapidly heating the ink in a small chamber. Ejection of the drop leaves a vacuum, which is then replaced by the next flow of ink. In the other sub-variant, an electric field is applied to a peizoelectric crystal. The rapid distortion so created causes a pressure pulse, which in turn causes the drops to be ejected from the nozzle.

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