Q. What is Thermal Inkjet (TIJ)?

A. Thermal inkjet is a technology that was developed by HP (Hewlett Packard) in the 1970s as an alternative technology to dot matrix printing. It offers a very high print quality with ink housed in a sealed cartridge that does not contact the surface being printed. “Thermal” refers to the method by which ink is expelled through the nozzle or orifice as behind each one is a minute heating element that, when energised, locally raises the temperature of the ink causing it to form a bubble which displaces ink forward and out of the opening.

Q. What are the advantages of using a cartridge?

A. Firstly the ink is entirely contained so cannot be spilt or cause any mess due to pouring or topping-up. Secondly, the cartridge houses the complete ink delivery system which is changed in its entirety each time the cartridge is changed, so removing the need for any maintenance. Finally, as the technology is “drop on demand”, only the ink required for making a print is used. None is required for ink re-circulation..

Q. What surfaces will it print onto?

A. The original technology was developed for printing onto paper-based, porous surfaces as the inks have water as their main solvent. The Apsolute printer is unique in using alcohol as the solvent and so being able to print onto a wide range of materials such as blister foils, varnished cartons, PVC extrusions etc.

Q. At what resolution does it print?

A. Each cartridge has two columns of 150 nozzles offset by half a pitch. from each other. When both are fired at the correct moment, the result is a line, ½” long , made up of 300 dots. This gives an effective resolution of 600 dot per inch (dpi). Horizontal (direction of travel) resolution can be varied up to 600 dpi to give a maximum of 600 x 600 dpi.

Q. Can the resolution be easily adjusted?

A. Indeed. And on some materials printing at 600 x 600 dpi actually reduces the sharpness of the print. The Apsolute printer can switch off one nozzle column, so reducing the vertical resolution to 300 dpi and the horizontal can be reduced to as low as 60 dpi with a total of nine possibilities between 60 and 600.

Q. What about font styles?

A. The printer resolution is comparable with (indeed may exceed that of) many office printers, so any font size and style can be accommodated.

Q. How can ink economy be maximised?

A. A combination of the font style, font size and print resolution allows the user to pick the best combination of print function and ink economy. The Apsolute controller gives an instant read-out of projected ink usage and counts down the number of prints left before the cartridge is exhausted.

Q. At what speeds can it print?

A. This does depend on the horizontal resolution of the print, but at the lowest resolution a speed of 220m/min can be obtained.

Q. What are the main reasons this technology is selected:

A. The four “Cs”, namely:
Cleanliness: no mess, no flushing, no spills.
Convenience: switch it on, clip in a cartridge and start printing
Cost: competitive on both capital and consumable costs
Clarity of print: up to 600 dpi with inks to suit a range of materials

Q. What applications are particularly suited to the technology?

TIJ is a very versatile technology that has applications in many market sectors. However, the Apsolute printer has proved itself to be especially good at printing 2D, Datamatrix, bar codes at high speeds on pharmaceutical packs (both blisters and cartons).
Applications where the high print resolution also comes into its own is where a mark such as a company logo needs to be printed without compromising the corporate image.
The networking capability of the printer allows it to be controlled by a central host system: a feature increasing being sought in modern production facilities.