You buy what appears to be great looking tasty fruit. You take it home for you and your family to enjoy and then with horror you cut the fruit and discover.......it tastes terrible or even worse its totally rotten inside due to poor storage and refrigeration. The question my family constantly asks is "How old is this fruit?".

Historically, companies looking for a coder to print barcodes, expiry and lot date in a packaging environment really only had one major print technology to consider – Continuous InkJet (CIJ). It could print on almost everything, from metal to plastics andmore. However it came at a price – complex operation, costly downtime issuesand the strong smell from the solvent used. Today, however, there is an alternative that overcomes all the problems previously encountered – Thermal InkJet (TIJ). To read more, download our TIJ vs CIJ Printers in Packaging document here.

Despite the best efforts of OEM continuous inkstream technology CIJ providers via cosmetic changes and upgrades in software and ink technology to expand into broader markets outside of the FMCG market, the reality is that the technique employed in all continuous inkstream technology has not changed in nearly 50 years.