A sample of a digital water ink jet print. (Photo courtesy of BCM Ink USA).
David Callif, president and owner of BCM Inks USA, who spoke on the topic of ink jet in the corrugated industry during t his year’s Flexographic Technical Association’s 2002 Annual Forum, is a believer that ink jet is finding a home in the corrugated industry.
“Ink jet is very good for short runs in corrugated,” Mr. Callif said. “I’ve seen product coming off of the Bel2000 and the Jetpack, and what’s outstanding about these printers is that you can run a thousand pieces and change the design or the text on the fly.
“I believe that UV ink jet will be a definite competitor to water-based ink jet, and it offers some advantages, particularly the ability to print on any substrate without pretreatment of the paper,” Mr. Callif said.
The Bel2000 uses a 600 dpi Scitex printhead, and with pretreatment, the results are excellent.“Our objective is to be able to match the best flexo out there,” said Randy Davis, director of sales and marketing at BelCom North America Group LLC. “The short run is what we are all about, for time sensitive materials or changing on the fly.”
The Bel2000. (Photo courtesy of Belcom North America Group LLC)
“The technology is advancing extremely rapidly,” Mr. Callif said. “What we didn’t think was possible nine months ago is being done today. The overall objectives are to print at 600 dpi and to increase press speeds. The key is in the ink jet heads and software development.”
Ink Jet Gains in Sampling, Short Run Textile Market
Ink jet inks are making headway in proofing in the textile market.
(Photo courtesy of BASF.)
The textile market is another segment where there is growth for ink jet, and BASF and DuPont are among the leading ink suppliers.
BASF is focusing its efforts on the textile market, which is slowly moving its short run and sampling work over to ink jet and away from screen printing. The textile market is huge, with 25 billion square meters of textiles printed annually.
“To reduce sampling costs, ink jet printing technology is penetrating into textile printing,” said John Provost, global marketing, ink jet inks at BASF. “The economics of ink jet printing are the main driver of this technique. With screen printing, all of the costs are up front. Each color has to be engraved on its own screen, at a cost of 400 euros a screen. Digital takes out those costs.”
Shorter runs play to the strength of ink jet. “The trend toward more original and exclusive designs and shorter run lengths is a given,” Mr. Provost said. “The costs per meter for ink jet printing are lower for short run lengths than in traditional screen printing. This switches for longer runs. The turning point is an individual factor for every textile printing company.”
Even though color, fastness and texture may be virtually the same between ink jet and screen inks, for example with reactive dye based inks, it is still not possible in some cases in textile ink jet.
“Textile companies want the same chemistry, but you can’t get certain textile inks through all ink jet heads, for example pigment ink jet inks with binders,” Mr. Provost said.
Mr. Provost said that by the end of the decade, ink jet ink could capture 10 percent of the overall textile printing market if technological gains continue to be made.
“Ink jet still needs to pick up speed, and the cost of ink remains high,” Mr. Provost said. “As ink jet printing speed increases, it is anticipated that ink jet will account for even more production processing due to the distinct advantages over screen printing. But running costs have to come down to establish ink jet in real bulk production.”