Issue
I want to use your inkjet on my machine or I want to realize a new application.
What do you need to know?
Machine
Other than mechanical considerations to be followed and are described in AM57 (What makes a good DOD inkjet Transport.doc), the most important variables we have to know are:
1. Describe what you want to do, give us a link to your webpage where actual products are described
2. Give us a drawing or photograph of your machine that shows how the product moves through the machine. Show where you want to place the inkjet heads, the shaft encoders, and the photocells. Also, it is very important to know whether different segments run at different speeds for product tracking.
3. Substrate speed. In feet per minute (fpm), inches per second (ips), or meters per second (m/s).
Minimum ____________ Maximum ____________ Acceptable ____________
4. Product rate. In products per hour (p/h) or products per second p/s.
Minimum ____________ Maximum ____________ Acceptable ____________
What is to be printed?
5. Give us a sample (scanned image works too) of what the different end product you want to print.
6. Give us a sample of data files you want to print, eventually a specification of the data format. Send us an email with a data file.
7. Image height. In Inches or millimeters.
Minimum ____________ Maximum ____________ Acceptable ____________
8. Image length. In Inches or millimeters.
Minimum ____________ Maximum ____________ Acceptable ____________
9. Product to product distance. In Inches or millimeters.
Minimum ____________ Maximum ____________ Acceptable ____________
Application
10. How do you want to print? sequentially from a file, read-and-print, print-and-verify
11. If products can be diverted before the end of the machine for different reasons, tell us how you want to handle exceptions, how you want to reproduce those lost products if at all.
12. If readers are to be used, tell us about how the reader communicates with the controller.
13. If label printers are to be used, tell us about how the printer communicates with the controller.