Post Date: April 6, 2015

Perfecting Ink Detection on Packaging Lines

Keeping the packaging line running is priority number one.  When the line shuts down for any reason, products stop moving and company revenues are compromised.  It’s not just the responsibility of the customer, but any supplier with a machine on the line must be committed to maximizing uptime.

AT Info’s industrial line of thermal inkjet coders are based on Hewlett Packard 45a and 45si technology.  The print cartridges are self-contained and not prone to leak or spew like alternative technologies (ie. continuous inkjet, piezo).  This makes HP cartridges one of the cleanest and greenest solutions for Package Coding.

In a perfect world, the customer would jet every last ink drop from the HP print cartridge before replacing it with a new one.  AT Info helps the customer make this goal a possibility.

Message creation software like EasyLabel and iDesign calculate the total number of ink drops necessary to print a specific message.  The software then indicates the total number of prints per print cartridge before replenishment is required.

In addition, AT Info recently introduced a new solution for Ink Level Monitoring.  The new system is comprised of a light stack, a single-pen printer with onboard controller, and a connector box for optional accessories.  The equipment is mounted to an industrial stand that can be relocated to virtually any packaging line.

When the print cartridge is sufficiently full the light stack is lit green.  When the print cartridge drops to 25% full or less the warning light switches to yellow.  And when the print cartridge is completely dry the light stack’s red light illuminates.  Operators can check the status of remaining ink from across the room by simply glancing at the light stack.

Consider the AT Info Ink Level Monitoring unit for single-line or multi-line operations.