What is a drop-on-demand printer?
Robust process for industry
Drop-on-demand printers belong to the group of Inkjet Printers. The English term drop-on-demand (DOD) stands for "drop on demand" and characterizes the printing process: For each dot that is to be printed, the print nozzle only opens for a droplet of ink when it is actually needed for the printed image. It can then escape and flies onto the surface to be marked. The drop-on-demand process is generally considered to be very robust and reliable. This makes it ideal for use in harsh industrial environments.
3 technologies for drop-on-demand printers
Valve technology, thermal inkjet technology, piezo inkjet technology
Three different technologies are available for the drop-on-demand process to open the print nozzles and push the ink through:
1.Valve technology: classic DOD technology, ejection of the ink drops at a frequency of up to 1,000 Hertz, robust and low-maintenance
2.Thermal inkjet technology (TIJ): generation of overpressure in the ink cartridge by heat, resulting in the ejection of ink droplets at a frequency of up to 15,000 hertz, robust, very high print quality
3.Piezo inkjet technology (PIJ): Creation of overpressure in the ink cartridge through electrical voltage (piezoelectric effect), very high printing speed, very long print head service life
Application areas of Drop-on-demand
Large character printing system for universal use
The drop-on-demand process is generally suitable for universal use in industry. Thanks to its robustness, it copes very well with dust, dirt, vibrations and changing temperatures.
A special area of application for drop-on-demand technology is large character inkjet printers. Depending on the manufacturer, these large character printing systems print fonts, numbers, barcodes and logos several centimeters in size. Systems from REA-Jet, for example, achieve a print height of 140 mm per print head. For even larger print images, large character inkjet printers usually combine several print heads.
