Industrial Coding Inks & Fluids

For decades, industrial coding has been an essential element of product manufacturing, packaging, and distribution. Modern supply chains rely on markings such as barcodes and lot numbers to direct shipments to their rightful destinations and to perform inventory. In industries such as food production, pharmaceutical manufacturing, and chemical production, these labels are also required by government regulations to guarantee traceability. With full traceability, companies can perform quality control at a high level, perform accurate recalls, and gain a comprehensive view of where all products are located.

Of course, codes are only valuable if they are both completely legible and machine-readable. If codes are applied incorrectly or made with the wrong ink, it can lead to quick deterioration. Consequently, manufacturing companies may inadvertently cause major supply chain issues and possibly violate regulations such as the Drug Supply Chain Security Act (DSCSA).

To help companies avoid these serious consequences, InkJet, Inc. offers a variety of industrial coding inks for specific applications, substrates, and printer models. Here’s a sample overview of our catalog.

Industrial Coding Inks for Porous Substrates

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Porous substrates are defined by their natural tendency to absorb liquids. Materials like cardboard and wood, for example, are well-known for their absorbent properties. Understandably, surface absorbency has the potential to complicate printing processes.

Markings like barcodes and data matrices must be printed with a high level of contrast to be machine-scannable. If a user attempts to make these markings with an incompatible ink formula, they are likely to become blurred or appear faint, reducing their scannability. Similarly, applied text and logos are likely to undergo similar problems.

Given how these codes are essential to product tracking, reporting, and inventory management, companies can’t afford to create markings that won’t last. Fortunately, InkJet, Inc. offers water-based and oil-based inks that are designed for porous applications. With these inks, users can mark a wide range of absorbent materials including:

• Cardboard
• Untreated wood
• Paper
• Sponge

Included in InkJet, Inc.’s portfolio are ink options for continuous inkjet printers, binary printers that use water-based inks, thermal inkjet printers, and high-resolution case coders.

Industrial Coding Inks for Non-Porous Substrates

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Just as material absorbency can complicate code quality, the lack of absorbency can also pose marking problems. When ink doesn’t have the opportunity to sink into the material’s surface, it can complicate the drying process. As a result, codes applied with incompatible formulas are likely to become smudged as they dry, eventually rendering them unreadable/unscannable.

To prevent this issue, InkJet, Inc. carries a number of solvent-based inks that are designed to dry quicker and cleaner than water-based formulas. With the aid of these formulas, companies are able to create sharp, long-lasting codes on a host of non-porous substrates including:

• Plastic
• PTFE 
• Metal
• Glass
• Rubber

InkJet, Inc.’s non-porous formulas are available for continuous inkjet and thermal inkjet printers. 

Industrial Coding Inks for Specialty Applications

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In addition to our stock porous- and non-porous-compatible ink formulas, our ink development team is available to create custom formulas with special characteristics. We understand that many manufacturing facilities face harsh conditions, and our specialty formulas enable companies to resist these factors and ensure quality codes. Furthermore, we offer inks that meet specific regulations, for example, those made by the FDA.

When working with our development team, clients can request formulas designed with:

• UV-readability
• High-temperature resistance
• Alcohol resistance
• Thermochromic properties
• Non-transfer properties
• Different color varieties, including white, blue, and green 
• Lightfastness in accordance to the Blue Wool Scale rating, or ASTM

Additionally, we offer aftermarket inks for popular printers like the Videojet 1000 Series. Not only are these formulas more affordable than OEM alternatives, but the results are better because the formula is tailored to the customer's application since our portfolio is more encompassing of substrates instead of off the shelf solutions.