Valve Jet Printer

A valve jet printer is a non-contact inkjet printing technology used for marking, coding and labelling. It releases ink droplets through electronically controlled valves onto the surface, and is commonly used in industrial settings for product identification and packaging. Nexus Australia supplies Markem Imaje valve jet printers Australia-wide.

How a valvejet printer works

A series of electronically controlled valves open and close to release precise droplets of ink onto the surface, forming large characters. Because it is non-contact, it prints on moving products without touching them.

The valves are relatively large compared with the nozzles in other inkjet technologies, so the droplet is bigger and the resulting character is bigger. That is the defining trait of the technology, and it is deliberate. A valvejet is built to put a code on the side of a carton that can be read across a warehouse, not to put a fine barcode on a retail pack.

Valve jet versus other large character options

Valve jet is one of two large character technologies we supply, and they are not interchangeable.

• Valve jet: porous surfaces only, such as plain corrugated, kraft and paper sacks. Prints plain alphanumeric characters. Very low cost per code and very simple to run.
• Hot melt wax: our large character inkjet printer range handles coated and uncoated board, plastics, wood and some metals, and produces higher print quality including barcodes, QR codes and logos.

So the substrate decides it. If the carton is plain brown corrugated and the code is a batch number and a date, valve jet is the cheapest correct answer. If the surface is coated, or the code needs a scannable barcode or a logo, it needs the wax system instead. Our guide to valve jet and large character coding works through the comparison.

Where valve jet is used

• Outer cases and cartons: batch, date and destination codes on shipping corrugated.
• Sacks and bags: coding paper and woven sacks in agriculture, feed, minerals and building products.
• Warehouse and dispatch: large legible codes readable from a distance during picking and stock control.
• Secondary packaging: where the primary pack is coded by another technology and the outer just needs identification.

Why choose valve jet

• Low cost per code: the lowest running cost of any ink-based coding method for large characters.
• Simple and robust: few moving parts, tolerant of dusty and industrial environments.
• Large, legible characters: readable at distance without a scanner.
• Non-contact: prints onto product moving past without touching it.

Substrate

Porous surfaces such as cartons, corrugated, kraft and paper sacks. Valve jet is not suitable for coated board, plastics or other non-porous surfaces, because the ink needs to absorb into the material to form a clean character.

Capability

• Batch or lot numbers for product traceability.
• Expiry dates for perishable goods.
• Manufacturing dates for time-sensitive products.
• Serial numbers for individual product identification.
• Warning labels and safety instructions on consumer products.
• Variable data for personalised marketing or packaging.
• Alphanumerical characters.

Speed

Markem Imaje valve jet printers print from low up to high speed applications.

Consumables

Markem Imaje valve jet printers use either water-based or solvent-based consumables to suit various substrates. Water-based inks suit standard porous board in ambient conditions; solvent-based inks are used where faster drying or better resistance is needed.

Related coding and marking systems

• Large character inkjet printers
• Continuous inkjet (CIJ) printers
• Thermal inkjet (TIJ) printers
• Laser coding systems
• Thermal transfer overprinters
• Print and apply labelling

Tell us your carton material and what the code has to contain, and we will confirm whether valve jet or the wax system is the right fit. Contact Nexus Australia for a quote.