A new twist on an old idea is entering the marketplace: thermal ink jet printing as an alternative to solvent-based continuous ink jet printing. This innovation uses an interchangeable print cartridge in a fashion analogous to a personal printer and puts down a fast-drying ink. Getting a fast-drying ink applied in this manner for meat-processing applications has been the lingering challenge, according to an industry source.
From the processors’ perspective the benefits can be immediate and dramatic. Maintaining continuous ink jet printers requires they be cleaned and flushed regularly, which is time-consuming and labor-intensive. The claim with a cartridge-based system is that no maintenance is required. The cartridge is just dropped in and the machine is turned on and ready for action. No warm-up. Down time is virtually eliminated. On the flip side, changeover times for continuous ink jet printers are reported to run anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour, so the savings could be significant.