There’s no question that thermal inkjet or TIJ printers have made significant inroads into packaging applications in recent years, effectively printing variable information onto various packaging materials. However, with the standards organization GS1 introducing its sunrise 2027 program for migrating to 2D barcodes, these new barcodes, unlike the current EAN/UPC codes, will often need to be printed online at the time of packaging.
Traditional TIJ printers, while perfect for many tasks like date and lot code applications, are somewhat lacking in printing these new barcode applications.
This is mainly because the most commonly used thermal inkjet system, the HP TIJ 2.5 has a maximum print height of just over half an inch, while the new GS1, 2D barcodes, particularly when encoded with the latest digital link format, are often going to be wider than this. While it’s possible to increase the print height of thermal printers by using a pair of print heads and stitching the print together to make a wider image, this is far from ideal.
There are also wider TIJ print heads on the market, but they are currently (although this will change soon) limited to aqueous-based inks, making them unsuitable for use on non-porous materials. Often found in packaging applications. I was very interested, therefore, in taking a look at the latest thermal inkjet concept from HP, the brand new ThermaCore printer
See my intro to this new product, along with the thoughts of Bao Nguyen, VP and General Manager at HP:
Let’s have a look at some of the specs:
With the expanded print swath, higher speed, longer throw distance and high-speed capabilities, this new print system appears ideal for a wide range of packaging applications, especially for brands adopting the GS1 Sunrise 2027 program, where the QR codes are likely to be too large to print on conventional TIJ printers.
The new HP ThermaCore concept looks to be an excellent way to print variable barcodes onto a wide range of package types.
There is a lot of innovation in coding technology to meet these new requirements, so be sure to check back with us to keep up to date.
