Choosing The Right Technology For A Variety Of Marking And Coding Applications

By Scott Benigni, product manager, Videojet Technologies Inc.

Marking and coding may not be high on your list of priorities… until you get a project that uses new packaging materials or has new customer requirements – the customer needs permanent codes; the packaging has changed from a paper box to a plastic bag; the marks need to be highly readable. Then it becomes crucial to know all your options before choosing the right technology.

Careful analysis can make the difference between a successful, efficient operation and one that experiences needless downtime, resulting in unhappy customers.

Key factors to consider include:

• Types of materials or substrates you’ll be marking
• Desired speed of application or throughput
• Print quality- permanence and readability
• Up front investment your company is willing to make
• Total cost of operation, which includes cost for service and consumables, such as inks and ribbons
• Whether variable data, graphics and bar codes are needed

Once you know these factors, it will be easier to choose which marking and coding technology is best for your application. Continuous ink jet (CIJ), laser coding, thermal transfer overprinting (TTO) and binary array ink jet printing are all options that have benefits for different applications. Here is how each technology fits into the increasingly diverse industry of package marking and coding.