Have you outgrown your Kirk-Rudy NetJet, MCS Falcon, Buskro Appolo, or other cartridge-based Inkjet Addressing Machine? Before you answer, here's some food for thought.
Cartridge-based inkjets are known for their ability to address postcards, envelopes, magazines, newspapers, and almost anything else. They are reliable, reasonably productive, and affordable for the average mailer.
However, their mid-market niche starts to break when customers demand faster turnarounds, better print quality, and printing on glossy-coated stocks. In addition, cartridge-based inks are expensive.
A typical 42ml inkjet cartridge costs $28.00. That equates to $2,523 / gallon!
Customers demanding faster turnarounds becomes an issue when your staff cannot run the cartridge-based inkjet faster than 250 ft/min (about 16,000 nine-inch postcards/hour). You can increase the speed, but the print quality suffers. Poor print quality causes your IMB barcode to fail quality checks at the USPS, which costs money.
What about coated stocks? Sure, you can usually get by with hybrid inkjet cartridges (about $39/cartridge) or solvent-based inkjet cartridges like the HP 2590 ($47/cartridge). Still, you're spending up to $4,244 / gallon and possibly running slower to give the ink time to dry and absorb into the paper.
So, returning to the original question, have you outgrown your cartridge-based inkjet addressing machine? To recap above, this may provide some clues:
- You're spending thousands of dollars on inkjet cartridges every year.
- Your customers want faster turnarounds.
- You have ink smearing and drying issues on glossy papers.
If you agree with two or three statements above, you've outgrown your cartridge-based inkjet addressing machine. There are solutions.
Drop-on-demand (DOD) Inkjet Address Printers are ideal for higher production and better print quality and can print on just about any substrate when using UV-cured inks.
In the coming weeks, Kirk-Rudy will introduce their newest 2" and 4" DOD Inkjet Printers. Some of the features include:
- 600 dpi at up to 450 ft/minute
- 150 dpi at up to 1,200 ft/minute
- Print up, down, or sideways. (great for web presses)
- Low maintenance
- Low ink costs (4x lower than a standard inkjet cartridge)
- Mounts to many existing inkjet bases
Please let us know if you'd like more information when it becomes available.
Thanks!
Greg Polk at (314) 209-7272 or gpolk @ peakbe dot com