Tonejet is a digital printing technology based on electrostatic ejection. The technology has been commercialized for metal packaging and is being applied to a wide range of packaging applications. In this paper we describe recent developments of Tonejet Technology focusing particularly on those aspects that enable Tonejet to meet the challenges of digital printing of packaging. Economic pressures are continuing to drive packaging to adopt digital printing processes such as Tonejet; in this paper we describe the advantages and challenges of shifting from conventional printing to digital in the packaging area. Environmental pressures also require that decoration technology is capable of printing directly onto new sustainable materials. We explain how the electrostatic ejection process behind Tonejet technology enables direct decoration of a wide range of materials, including both non-absorbing and absorbent materials. We also focus on the scalability aspects of Tonejet, including the use of scalable printhead fabrication processes, and the technical aspects that enable the combination of multiple printheads into wider units. Together these allow Tonejet to meet the dimensional and throughput requirements of packaging printing.
展开▼
