Do you really understand the difference between toner and inkjet imaging technology?

Digital printing has become a trend. Currently, more and more label printing companies are putting investment in digital printing equipment on the agenda. However, facing the endless variety of digital label printing equipment in the market, how should label printing companies choose equipment that is suitable for their own needs? This article provides a comparative analysis of the principles of digital printing, the properties of consumables, and the adaptability of products for your reference. It is hoped that it can help label printing companies purchase the desired label digital printing equipment.

According to imaging principles, the mainstream digital printing technologies in the market can be divided into two categories: digital toner electrostatic imaging technology and digital inkjet imaging technology.

Dry toner typically consists of the following components: (1) pigments, colorants used to achieve the desired color; (2) Resin, mainly polyester, is a high molecular organic polymer that is solid at room temperature. This resin surrounds pigment particles and forms the main part of the carbon powder; (3) Filler, a charge control agent dispersed in the resin, to accelerate or, if necessary, slow down the charging rate and maintain the charging characteristics of carbon powder and adhesive additives; (4) Surface additives or external additives to further improve the performance of carbon powder; (5) Additives for specific applications to achieve the special properties and characteristics of carbon powder.

The particles of dry carbon powder are relatively fine, ranging from 6 to 9 μ Between m, usually size 8 μ M. When using dry toner printing, once the image is transferred to the substrate, heat is released to fuse the toner with the substrate. Heat will cause the carbon powder particles to solidify (i.e., the resin melts), forming a uniform solid polyester film.

Under normal circumstances, the average thickness of a single layer image printed with dry toner is about 4 μ M. By adjusting the amount of imaging light without any impact on production efficiency, thicker image layers can be achieved, usually for opaque white ink layers or color layers that require tactile thickness.