ABSTRACT

Inkjet printing is the printing technology in which droplet of ink is bombarded onto the substrate to print. It is available in two major forms; Continuous Inkjet and Drop-on-Demand. At one hand, in continuous inkjet printing system ink is expelled continuously in the form of dots to reach to the desired print locations using deflection system, on the other in the drop- on-demand (Piezoelectric) ink is expelled from the ink reservoir with the help of piezoelectric crystal, as per the demand of print areas. Objective of this paper is to compare and optimize the ink density in Continuous Inkjet and Drop-on-Demand (Piezoelectric) print engines. A master test chart was prepared with the help of Pressign colour control bar solid C, M, Y, K tint patches and was printed with the help of CIJ and DOD-PIJ presses in the standard pressroom conditions. The printed sheets were tested on solid CMYK patches with the help of X-rite Exact Spectro-densitometer. The solid ink density results were compared and various ways for density optimization are suggested in the paper.

KEYWORDS: – Continuous Inkjet, Drop-on-Demand (Piezoelectric), Inkjet Print Engines, Ink Density, Tint Patches