Drop-on-demand inkjet printers

A drop-on-demand inkjet printer is a type of labeling system whose printing heads eject discontinuous droplets onto the printing substrate to produce the image by means of the heat-induced explosion of ink bubbles (e.g. in bubble jet printers and thermal inkjets).

In the drop-on-demand printing technique, the ink in the tiny print cartridge chambers is first heated until it evaporates. This allows the formation of ink bubbles that later expand and inject small drops of ink on the printing surface through a nozzle. Each nozzle is individually controlled.

The main advantage of drop-on-demand inkjet printers is that they can directly print over the surface of an item, making labels unnecessary. Other advantages include:

• Low cost. Since drop-on-demand inkjet printers can directly print over an item, the costs that would otherwise be incurred in manufacturing labels is eliminated.
• Large character printing. Because of the relatively large diameter of the nozzles, drop-on-demand inkjet printers can print particularly large size fonts.
• High printing quality. With drop-on-demand inkjet printing, the resultant printed image or text is clean and readily legible.
• High quality printing on sensitive and uneven surfaces.
• Compatibility with special inks. Drop-on-demand inkjet printers are compatible with special inks of different colors for use on porous surfaces (e.g. paper, cardboard, wood) and smooth, impermeable surfaces (e.g. plastic, metal, glass).

The main difference between drop-on-demand inkjet printers and traditional label printers is that the former can directly print over the surface of an item, while the latter are used to print labels that must afterwards be applied to a surface.

In this sense, drop-on-demand inkjet printers can significantly reduce the costs and time associated with marking as they do not require the manufacturing and application of labels. Instead, both processes are combined and carried out at once.