Keep Continuous Inkjet Print Heads Clean

Used for marking and coding products and packaging, continuous inkjet (CIJ) printers are notorious for needing frequent maintenance—which leads to downtime—says Jan Visser, vice president and general manager of industrial inkjet manufacturer Paul Leibinger’s Americas operations.

When a typical CIJ printer is idle, any ink remaining inside the ink system and printhead is exposed to air. It dries, clogging the printhead’s nozzles and preventing proper operation.

“That’s why you’ll often see a facility’s maintenance shop filled with units that need work or with spares waiting to be rotated into the production line. CIJ printheads are sometimes cleaned as often as at the start of every shift,” Visser says. “Other manufacturers try to fix this problem by recommending spraying up to 50 milliliters of cleaning fluid on the printhead and its sensitive electronics daily,” he adds. “This doesn’t eliminate the problem; it creates a messy system and unnecessarily exposes employees to hazardous materials and waste.”

To reduce maintenance and downtime, Leibinger created the JET3up CIJ printer with features that prevent such clogs. “When the unit is idle, the nozzle is hermetically sealed against exposure to air which stops the ink from drying. While it’s sealed, the ink pressurization is maintained to keep the ink flowing continuously,” Visser explains, noting that this is a standard feature across all the company’s coding systems.

In one installation, Visser adds, a manufacturer of canned products coded 40 million products without cleaning a single JET3up printhead. “More recently, a leading wire and cable manufacturing reported 160 million codes printed without a single service call,” he says.

Additionally, the printers feature energy-saving electronics and use no internal fan, meaning they consume only 20 watts of energy—less than most light bulbs, he notes.

“We’ve also created an integrated recycling system that cuts solvent consumption by 50%,” he says. “EcoSolv condenses evaporated solvent from the printer exhaust air and returns it to the storage tank, resulting in fewer volatile organic substances, less packaging waste and lower consumables costs.”