With 40,000 times/sec high-frequency injection and ±0.02 mm placement accuracy, tij printer can print 0.3 mm thick microcode on PE, PET, aluminum foil and other products with flexible pack line speed of 800 m/min. Volume of drops adjusted exactly to 0.6 tL (accuracy ±0.03 TL), drying time <0.05 seconds (ultra-fast drying ink viscosity 2.8 mPa·s). As an example, when printing two-dimensional code on polyethylene film using Domino Ax350i, the bar code contrast is up to ISO 15415 standard Grade A (minimum reflectivity difference ΔE≥1.2), and the scanning code success rate is 99.99%, which is 500% more than the original laser marking efficiency. 2023 Flexible packaging industry facts and figures show that TIJ machines process more than 2 million pieces per day, the incidence of code leakage has been reduced from 0.2% to 0.001%, and the annual returns loss on account of identification errors has been reduced by more than $180 million.
Multi-material compatibility and harsh environment compatibility are significant strengths. Videojet 2380 TIJ printer stable printing on frozen food flexible packaging line through the dynamic temperature control system (-40℃ to 80℃ range of operation), ink adhesion at -50℃ low temperature still up to ASTM D3359 standard 5B class (delimit test shedding area <0.5%). Nestle prints aluminum-plastic composite film with batch numbers with TIJ technology, FDA-approved water-based ink with 22%±1% solid content, 0.1 second penetrative drying time, and 72-hour salt spray test (5% NaCl solution), improving character corrosion resistance by 85%. Research shows that when TIJ is printed on curved flexible packaging (curvature radius ≥2 mm), ink drop point error is <±10 microns, 60% higher than piezoelectric technology.
Environmentally friendly and low operating cost drive adoption. Brother’s heavy-duty TIJ printhems utilize self-cleaning modules that consume just 0.001 mL of maintenance ink for every 2 million jetts, reduce nozzle clogging probability from 15% of CIJ machines to 0.05%, and deliver over 30,000 hours of MTBF (mean time to failure). Unilever’s trial on the vertical bag production line reflects that after 18 months’ uninterrupted operation of TIJ machines (800,000 units of printing per day), the sharpness of character edges still complies with GS1 DataMatrix standard, the frequency of maintenance decreases from 3 times/day to 1 time/quarter, and the expense of yearly running and maintenance reduces by 90%. In addition, TIJ ink cartridges have a capacity of 500 mL (30 million characters per cartridge), VOC emissions of <2 ppm, and EU REACH and FDA 21 CFR Chapter 11 electronic records compliance certification.
High-speed version switching and intelligent integration functions increase efficiency. In the solution that Siemens and Defoor Automation designed in 2024, Industry 4.0, the tij printer synchronizes real-time MES data over the OPC UA protocol with dynamic inkjet content adjustment at 2400 dpi with a response delay <5 milliseconds and supports 200 variable information updates per second. When P&G installed the system in the production line for snack packages, product change time reduced from 10 minutes to 8 seconds, and production capacity increased by 55%. Market facts reveal that 73% of the world flexible packaging identification machinery using TIJ technology, from which the food industry accounted for 82%, 2023 shipment of related equipment increased 35%, period of return of investment decreased to 4 months, 6 times faster compared to laser machinery. Amazon uses TIJ printers to label environmental labels on degradable PLA packaging films, and the rate of recognition accuracy has increased from 97% to 99.999%, with an annual saving of $120 million in manual inspection expenses.