EASYPRINT's Patented Ribbon Economy System

The Design

The principle behind the patented Ribbon Economy technology is an electronic adjustment of the ribbon speed relative to the web (packaging material) speed. The result is that we can control exactly how much slower we want the ribbon to run compared to the web. This relationship can be controlled in steps as short as 1%, which makes the Ribbon Economy feature

adaptable to any type of production environment.

The Benefits

When the ribbon runs slower than the web the ribbon ink is spread onto the packaging material in a thinner layer, which increases the scratch resistance of the print. In addition, it allows you to reduce the heat passing through the printhead, thereby prolonging printhead lifetime. Additionally, since the printhead is literally printing a shorter print on the ribbon while maintaining the original print length on the packaging material the printhead is used less that it would be with no Ribbon Economy. This further prolongs printhead life.

The Application

The Ribbon Economy settings allow you to choose up to 60%+ ribbon economy, though such high settings are rarely used. In general, most production environments benefit from applying Ribbon Economy of 15-40% without compromising print quality in terms of how dark the prints is. How much Ribbon Economy you can apply depends on your production environment, packaging material, ribbon quality and requirements for print darkness.

Patented Auto-Retraction System

EASYPRINT’s Auto-Retraction System electronically retracts the ribbon after every print. The system is not limited to maintaining a distance between prints of at least 1mm. It allows for prints that are less than 1mm apart and even allows for overlaps.

Prints that show print results of the EASYPRINT Ribbon Economy (left) and Auto-Retraction (right) systems