Inkjet Printing

Industrial inkjet printing on plastics asks more of the substrate than paper ever did: low-surface-energy polymers such as polypropylene and polyethylene reject most inks until the surface is pretreated, and UV LED curing, ink chemistry and part geometry all decide whether a print survives handling, cleaning and outdoor exposure. The articles in this topic cover single-pass and scanning systems for three-dimensional parts, ink selection and adhesion, UV LED curing, printing on flexible and wearable products, and how inkjet compares with laser marking and other decorating methods, plus Scott Sabreen’s Industrial Print magazine webinar on printing plastics. The inkjet printing services page describes how Sabreen qualifies a printing process end to end.