The objectives of The Industrial Marking & Coding and Large Format Printing Technologies Blog

“Marco, I am in the midst of locating the speed comparison video that between Canon, HP and Epson large format printer from your website, can you help?”

One of the most reputable large format printer channel partners called me while I was driving back from work. He was calling me from Melacca as he wanted to show the speed performance of Canon 12-color series to his prospected customer who is running a production print business.

The phone call has given me utmost recognition and encouragement. It helps to remind me to be consistent in updating this blog and not forgetting the objectives of starting this website.

I started this website with 2 main objectives.

Objective 1: Posting informative write-ups and product reviews to share with users or potential buyers who are doing research and comparison via the Internet.

Objective 2: Make use of this website as a tool for field sales representative to utilise some content which is useful as sales & marketing tools.

Do you find this website informative and useful?

Marsh Unicorn/ ILC Imaje Crayon

If you are looking for a large character printer to print single line alpha numeric characters at the corrugated carton box, the recommendation to you is the Marsh Unicorn carton printer, or the ILC Imaje Crayon (OEM by Marsh).

Marsh Unicorn or ILC Imaje Crayon is the best option for simple corrugated carton printing application among its class. The picture shows an ILC Imaje Crayon which has been operated for more than 10 years and still working fine.

Marsh Unicorn or ILC Imaje Crayon works best with proper installation criteria as below:
1. Constant conveyer speed.
2. The cartons will be aligned properly by the side guide before printing.
3. Minimal vibration.
4. Not so dusty environment.

Imaje Crayon (previous version)

The previous version Imaje Crayon large character inkjet printer is one of the most popular carton printer in the market.

In South East Asia region, the Imaje Crayon installed base could be as large as its rival Marsh Unicorn.

The outlook of this Imaje Crayon printer looks very similar to Marsh Unicorn, in fact, both of these models were manufactured by Marsh.

A few years after Videojet acquired Marsh company, Imaje has discontinued this model and the latest Crayon was launched.

To inkjet users who still have the previous version of Imaje Crayon carton printer, alternately you could engage Marsh authorized distributors to for technical assistance.

To enhance the operating cost in term of cost per print, it is wise to upgrade the unit with ink system (reservoir) because purchase ink in bulk form (normally in 5 gallons drum) will have significant savings as compared to getting ink supplies in cartridge form.

It would be even better if the ink system is equipped with ink low alarm which would trigger upon ink level falls below certain preset level.

Carton Coding with Marsh Unicorn

Background
The customer is in paper converting business.

Application
The customer has to stock up various carton boxes to for all their products which are thermal transfer ribbon, thermal & wood free papers, self-carbonized papers, self-contained papers as well as inkjet & photo papers. The factory is running out of space due to the massive inventory of all type of carton boxes. The goal is to reduce the carton boxes storage space as well as simplify the existing process of production.

Solution
To meet both of the requirements of this secondary packaging, a carton printer is needed. Drop on Demand (DOD) technology is the answer for the customer because it provides legible coding as well as easy to integrate to the production line where space is scarce.

Marsh Unicorn is installed on the carton sealer and its prints product SKU codes, batch number, packaging date and serial number of the box while it move pass the sealer. This eliminates the process of manual stamping of variables codes which is practicing in the past.

The spaces that save from the inventory storage is now converted to production area. They are 7 units of Marsh Unicorn installed in this factory and it is still expanding.

Coding on Steel Sheets

Background
The customer is in the steel shearing manufacturing environment.

Application Requirement
White and Black Color batch number coding on the sheet is required depending on material which are mild steel, 304L, 304, 304/L or 316 Stainless Steel. The operating environment is typically exposed to extensive dust and dirt which is unavoidable in the industry of steel manufacturing.

Solution
REA-JET 16 Dots system (DOD Technology) with pigmented ink system and die based ink system were installed on the cut to length machine. During the shearing process, the steel coil is being pulled to the desired length prior to cutting, the REA-JET system which is synchronized with the wheel encoder print the batch number on the steel while it move past the printhead.

Changing the ink color from white to black or vice versa is made so easy by just connecting the respective ink system to the printhead without tedious flushing of ink system and re-calibration of the system.