The UV PIJ printer’s high-speed performance is due to the physical limitations of its piezoelectric nozzle technology. The 1280-hole piezoelectric nozzle array with industrial UV PIJ device has a single nozzle injection rate of 80kHz, and the flight speed of the droplets is accelerated to 20 meters/second, 433% higher than the traditional hot foaming technology (15kHz), and the ultra-high-speed printing speed is up to 300 meters/minute on the 1.2-meter wide coil, and the error of accuracy is controlled within ±10 microns. When an auto wiring harness manufacturer adopts this technology in 2023, the printing speed of signs is enhanced from 12 meters/minute of traditional laser engraving to 240 meters/minute, the output of a single production line in a day can be increased from 80,000 to 650,000 pieces, and the equipment return investment cycle can be shortened to 11 months. According to the “high-speed digital printing technology White Paper” figures, UV PIJ can still ensure a consistent production rate of 150 meters/minute at the resolution of 600dpi, and power consumption cost per unit area is only 0.03 yuan /㎡, 76% less than the inkjet printer.
Instant curing avoids physical delays in the production line. The 395nm wavelength LED light source and the uv pij printer are able to raise the curing level of the ink to 98% in 0.008 seconds and reduce the length of the dry section of roll-to-roll printing from 15 meters of the traditional hot air dryer to 0.5 meters. The comparison data of a flexible packaging company shows that when UV PIJ machines overprint five-color on PET film, process interval time is reduced from 32 seconds of solvent-based ink to 0 seconds, the ceiling of production line speed is broken from 80 m/min to 200 m/min, and VOC emissions reduce from 120mg/m³ to 0.5mg/m³. 2.8 million yuan of environmental protection treatment is saved every year. During the manufacture of 3C electronics, FPC flexible circuit board is manufactured by UV PIJ technology directly printing conductive silver paste lines on polyimide substrates, and the cured square resistance is less than 15mΩ/□, and the manufacturing beat reduces to 9 seconds from 45 seconds per unit, and the yield is 99.8%.
The dynamic stability of the intelligent ink supply system ensures the stable high-speed printing. A specific UV PIJ printer brand adopts a closed-loop negative pressure control system to monitor the ±0.5kPa real-time variation in the ink path pressure, and corrects it in 2ms through PID algorithm, so the high-speed printing ink drop point deviation is below ±5 microns. The testing result of a drug aluminum foil packaging company indicates that at the working speed of 200 meters/minute 72 hours continuous production, the major parameter volatility (CV value) of UV PIJ machine is only 0.8%, significantly lower than the industry warning level of 3%, and the defect rate of printing was reduced from 1.2% to 0.05%. By adopting on-demand ink supply technology, the ink use ratio is up to 99.3%, the waste rate lowers by 47% compared to the open ink supply system, and the total cost of the procurement of one device’s annual white ink far exceeds 800,000 yuan.
The design of modular maintenance lowers the downtime losses. The nozzle module of the UV PIJ printer adopts a quick-disassembly structure, and the replacement time of a single nozzle is reduced from the traditional 4 hours to 8 minutes, and the accuracy of fault prediction to 98.5% is achieved by the self-diagnosis system. The company’s business performance shows that its total equipment efficiency (OEE) has increased from 78% to 95%, and unplanned annual downtime has dropped from 120 hours to 7 hours, representing an increase of more than 14 million label manufacturing capacity a year. According to the 2024 industry report, enterprises using UV PIJ technology have already cut the average preparation time for production to 2 minutes from 45 minutes, the line change efficiency was boosted by 95%, and the utilization of equipment can be maintained at more than 92% during the mixed line production of 500 SKUs. All these innovations make UV PIJ printers an indispensable resource for industrial high-speed printing.