What is the difference between inkjet and electrophotography?

Inkjet is a highly-developed process which has recently made great progress in print sizes, resolution, printing speed and reliability. Drupa 2008 has confirmed the improvements of inkjet technology.  At the moment, electrophotography still provides better quality, but is limited in terms of speed and flexibility of print width.

 

Which media are compatible with DOD inkjet printing?

With UV inks we can print on paper, cardboard, plastic, metal and glass... According to the media some ink developments or pre coating of the substrate are required.
With water-based inks we can print on paper, cardboard and plastic film wit pre coating treatment according to the substrate.

 

How can inkjets help RFID technology?

At the moment, the manufacturing process for smart labels (tags) hits cost barriers, particularly when producing antenas and connections to electronic chips. This could slow down the projected exponential growth in their use over the next few years. MatJet (the jetting of special fluids) is a break through technology that focuses on manufacturing tags at very low cost. It can be used to print antenas and at the same time its connection to the silicon chip, thus reducing the number of manufacturing stages. But MatJet brings with more radical changes to the process. There are major impacts, first with the use of very low-cost  substrates (paper-based), second with the chip, where the contactless material jetting, optimises the size of the circuits and thus introduces cost reduction.

 

What file formats do you support?

We accept a whole range of files, including .jpg, .tiff, .eps, .pdf and .bmp. The most important thing is that the image is clean (no anti-aliasing) and with sufficient quality (the minimum resolution required depends on the size).

 

How do you calculate ink consumption?

It is very easy to calculate ink consumption for inkjet technology, since there is no waste. Impika has developed a software that calculates consumption for the image to be printed.

 

How much do consumables for a UV inkjet printer cost?

The piezoelectric Drop-On-Demand process ejects a droplet only when required. This means there is no waste. As an indication, 1 litre of ink is enough to print around 42 million characters in Arial 12, so that consumables for a UV inkjet printer cost 20 times less than those for thermal ribbon, for equivalent quality at much higher speed.

 

How much does the ink cost?

UV ink looks relatively expensive at the moment. Water-based inks are much cheaper. However, what matters is the final printing cost. If you calculate the cost per page you will see that you gain over other processes. This is the “You Pay What You Print” principle.

 

What ink can be used in Impika printing systems?

Impika works very closely with major ink manufacturers optimizing Impika's printing solutions performances. Each batch is thoroughly inspected and approved by Impika after a whole serie of tests. Impika strongly recommends to use the approved inks approved.

 

Is industrial inkjet printing still seen as dirty?

Impika systems include an automatic cleaning station. Forget ink blots and systems that won’t restart. The cleaning station keeps the system  operational at any time, and cleans and protects the heads efficiently.

 

How long do the inkjet heads last?

The lifetime of an inkjet head depends on the applications and the environment of use. A piezoelectric module is resistant and its lifetime depends mainly on how often the substrate rubs against the nozzle plate, how much dust there is, and on how well the head is maintained. We also provide a refurbishment service for used heads.