As an industrial printing technician for
several years I have watched the industries technologies grow and for the most
part improve the quality of print and reduce the maintenance and cost per
print. The most recent addition to the field has been the use of standard HP
printer cartridges for product marking and outer case coding. This technology
and most of its functionality has been developed in the printing industry on
large webs and in the mailing industry to address information.
Control is the key
The disadvantage to this printing
technology is there are too many things that need to align to achieve quality
print. The current Trident and Zar print engines are a single row of multiple
nozzles. With the HP style system the ink cartridge itself has 2 channels one
beside the other and the second row of nozzles needs to print exactly over the
first row of nozzles or a ghost or blurry print is created. This is much less
obvious in text printing but can be a disaster when printing graphic images or
barcodes. Most manufacturers have included the ability to turn off one set of
nozzles 150 DPI vs. 300 DPI. The print with only one channel enabled is half
the darkness and if a nozzle in the cartridge failed or becomes blocked a clear
line will be present in the print.
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