Digital inkjet decoration
We present our digital printing, applicable in production and non-production lines, for decoration with oil- and water-based inks, also for food packaging. In industry, flexibility is a key factor in achieving results.
Customisation has become so, to attract and simulate end customers.
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Digital inkjet printing can offer and combine these two factors perfectly. Single pass printing has also brought these advantages to industrial inline production.
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Xlogic continues to develop and apply these technologies in various areas of packaging printing, from carton to medical to food printing. Today we can use different types, and at different resolutions. This is why some of our customers are themselves manufactures of digital printers: "Powered by Xlogic".
But that is another story...
The inks
The ink par excellence in Xlogic inkjet printing is oil-based. Non-existent wear on the heads, almost zero maintenance on the
hydraulic circuit. Research into this type go liquid now makes it possible to use it on all types of packaging, including compostable
packaging.
Should it be necessary to use an ink suitable for food contact, our experience in the food decoration sector puts us above any
constraint or restriction, because our liquid id itself the food.
Case history
Corrugated cardboard
The first machine we produced, in 2007 , was a bar with a printing width of two meters. It is currently in the offices Xlogic, in our historical museum. The customer had to buy a new, more powerful one, with print
width of two and a half meters and a length of 4.5.​ And with drop volume heads variable, to be
able to modulate contrast intensity depending on of the substrate and to be able to have more
definition in details and color nuances.
As always, we developed everything ourselves, the mechanics, the hydraulics, the
pneumatics, but above all electronics of the heads. As in the past, given the difficulty
in aligning 36 print heads, we took charge of the part relating to the transport of the
large sheet , a component whose precision is fundamental to achieve a good graphic
result.
Transport , being a sensitive issue delicate issue, we commissioned it to a company we
have been working withfor years and who knows very well the details to which great care
must be taken.
The instant format change of the digital printing allows for zero the minimum quality required
with other technologies, there is no waste, it requires no washing, no interventions of specialized
technicals for mechanical adjustments and drastically reduces energy consumption. Now the customer
can print the entire sheet, obtaining 4-6-8 different boxes in one piece, which are then die-cut and separated later, thus being able to offer their customers supplies.
Decoration of compostable coffee capsules
In Switzerland, in 2020, a large coffee company decides to incorporate its product line with a
compostable capsule, replacing plastic with a biodegradable material of their own design
and aluminium with paper. Being a new product they decided to customize the top of
the capsule with an inline digital printing, to avoid purchase and stocks of
different reals fo each product.
The initial, and not exactly simple, is the development of a liquid that does not
contain food additives, because the legislation in this field of application does not
allows it. We are already on the right road at that time, but this application gives
us the green light to finish the job and release the new liquid.
The installation is perhaps the most complicated ever done, with a printer containing 4
heads weighing 25kg hanging three metres high height, with a double system of electric
lifting and a special software that makes it possible to eliminate alignment errors between the
heads caused by the film pull, also developed ad-hoc for this individual requirement.