APS is a major international supplier of fluids (inks, additives, make-up) for all major brands of industrial ink jet printers.
The company is also a technological leader in the development of ground-breaking thermal ink jet printers.
Headquartered in Germany where all products are engineered, manufactured and distributed worldwide to over 35 countries (and here in Australia through the APS subsidiary), vice president Andrew Sharp says the company’s mission is to open the restricted supply of consumables to major brands of ink jet printers, while simultaneously offering a maintenance-free alternative ink jet technology suited to the marking and coding of packaged products.
In terms of the company’s most recent and exciting innovations, Sharp points to the Apsolute™ thermal ink jet printer, launched in Australia early in 2007 along with APS patented technology that extends the use of high alcohol content fast dry inks suited to coding non-porous primary packaging.
“While Thermal Ink Jet (TIJ) is a Hewlett-Packard technology used daily in many workplaces for printing on porous materials, Apsolute™ significantly expands the number of applications through the use of high alcohol content fast dry disposable ink cartridges for coding non-porous packaging materials,” he explains.
“This unique breakthrough in ink jet technology is a mast head development from APS engineering as it allows the enormous benefits of ink jet to be enjoyed without the drawbacks of current day continuous ink jet small character printers.”
“The winds of change are here already and blowing stronger by the day,” Sharp says.
“The old days of high maintenance CIJ, service technicians, ink stained floors, handling of dangerous flammable liquids and exclusive supply agreements are being replaced with clean, maintenance free, enviro-friendly ink.”
In the current environment, Sharp believes thermal ink jet offers the greatest potential to provide a single technology able to address the fundamental needs of primary, secondary and tertiary packaging.
“Thermal Ink Jet is the natural coding and marking technology of the future and will be dominant within the next decade,” he asserts.
Of all the other ink jet technologies, Andrew Sharp says APS recognised the enormous benefits offered by thermal ink jet such self maintenance through disposable cartridges, scalability and simplicity.
“With millions of systems being used daily in the mailing and office environment, thermal ink jets are a well tried and tested solution,” he says.
“But thermal ink jet only works with water based and low alcohol content inks, meaning it is only suitable for porous materials. It is a secondary not a primary packaging solution.”
APS therefore undertook a significant development project and engineered a proprietary driver to drive high alcohol content, fast dry inks suited to coding non-porous primary packaging materials.
“The result was the launch in 2007 of the Apsolute™,” Sharp enthuses.
A significant number of marking and coding packaging requirements are legislatively governed, forming a critical link in the production chain, and are installed in no-print-no-production locations.
Unlike current day continuous ink jet, laser and thermal transfer ribbon printers, the Apsolute™ thermal ink jet has no moving parts (no pumps, no motors, no filters, no tubes, no solenoid valves, and no membranes).
“This system is maintenance-free and allows the user to get on with the job without having to endlessly worry about the up-time of the marking and coding equipment,” Sharp says.
“Any potential problems are resolved simply by replacing a print cartridge, a task that takes no more than five seconds.”
“By empowering the manufacturer with the ability to ‘repair’ potential problems with the exchange of a simple cartridge, Apsolute™ eliminates the time, expense, lost production and uncoded products normally associated with coder failure,” he adds.
“This increases efficiency, productivity and sustainability in all packaging situations.”
At Interpack 2008, APS launched a further innovative technology, the Apsolute™ in-line shutter to increase the range of fast dry inks available for this product range.
“The patented in-line shutter automatically caps the ink cartridge when not being used for printing,” Sharp says.
“APS has also launched an ink for Apsolute™ suitable for marking and coding onto BOPP film.
BOPP film is traditionally a challenge for ink jet technology; however this new ink provides excellent adhesion with all the benefits of disposable cartridge technology.”
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