Videojet develops an ink for dual-purpose applications requiring both machine readable fluorescent and human readable codes
Wood Dale, Illinois. February 23, 2017 – Fluorescing UV inks offer a number of advantages, including high print quality, improved durability and enhanced productivity. Fluorescing UV ink is only visible under UV lighting, satisfying the need for a robust but invisible solution, allowing discrete codes and brand information to be tracked through the supply chain.
With over 40 years of ink development experience, Videojet Technologies Inc., a global leader in coding, marking and printing solutions, has launched an innovative new pink fluorescent ink designed to deliver machine readable and visually distinctive codes on multi-coloured substrates. The new ink offers unique code properties to enable automated product validation and to assure correct product routing throughout the supply chain. These features help to drive increased productivity and enhanced uptime.
The new V539 ink contains a unique set of fluorescent dyes and visible dyes, combined to provide machine readable and human readable codes on a wide variety of coloured substrates, such as caps, pre-printed labels and decorated products. The fluorescent ink produces a red, light emitting fluorescent code when illuminated by a UV light source, and the fast illumination response time means that codes can be read and captured on high-speed production lines directly after printing. In addition, the ink produces a human-visible pink colour, making it easier to perform quick visual quality checks.
Sherry Washburn, Business Unit Manager, Supplies, at Videojet explains “The pink fluorescent ink was formulated for dual-purpose applications that require both machine readable and human readable codes. The ink works through ultraviolet illumination that excites the fluorescent dye, causing it to radiate red light.”
The pink fluorescent ink offers a fast dry time, approx. 2-3 seconds, and has excellent adhesion on substrates such as metal, glass and certain plastics. This makes the ink ideal for coding on to beverage bottle crowns, on to the bottom of aluminium cans, parts marking, track and trace applications and many more.
The ink is for use in the Videojet 1620 Ultra High Speed and 1650 Ultra High Speed inkjet printers (www.videojet.com/cij-inks), designed to deliver more code content for high speed packaging operations. The UHS printers incorporate the Videojet Precision Ink Drop™ system and Videojet’s patented CleanFlow™ technology, and are engineered to enable tri-line code applications to be run at typical dual-line speeds.
In addition, the Videojet 1650 UHS printer offers Code Assurance features that help to eliminate common coding errors by helping operators put the right code on the right product, time after time. On-board productivity tools display information on Printer Availability and Operational Availability, and customers can use this data to help determine what is causing downtime events and take corrective action.
