Pallets for international shipping have to be marked with a heat treatment stamp to show they adhere to ISPM15 regulations. Traditional methods for marking pallets include heat branding and ink stenciling.
However, inkjet printing is an alternative method of pallet marking, which produces a fast, regular, high-quality mark without the drawbacks of fire risk or high labour costs.
Heat branding burns the mark into the timber, using an engraved brass plate heated to over 500 degrees Celsius. The main disadvantages to this method are the fire risk, the safety risk to the operators, and the energy use.
Ink stenciling is a convenient way of marking stacks of pallets by hand, after production. But it is labour-intensive, and the water-based inks often smudge if the stencil is moved, or becomes damaged over time with constant use.
Inkjet solves these problems, and there are additional benefits such as the fine print quality for sharp text and logos, or the variable data possibilities for automatic date codes and serialization.
In comparison with branding, inkjet printing presents a lower risk option, both to the operator and the environment. The printers work at ambient temperature, and rather than handling hot plates to change a message, an operator can change the print design at the touch of a button. This means a faster marking process: the operator does not have to handle hot metal, wait for the branding plate to heat up or stop the production line for up to 10 seconds per pallet while it is branded.
Inkjet printers also consume less energy than their branding counterparts. Assuming the brander uses 6 x 0.75kW heating elements and compressed air to power 6 air cylinders, an inkjet printer will use approximately one tenth of the electricity to produce a high-resolution mark. The printer will need to power just two controllers and the LEDs are on only when the pallet block is passing in front of them; approximately 7.5% of the time.
The flexibility of programming is also a major advantage that inkjet has over stencilling. Messages can be changed quickly and easily to include logos, dates, machine-readable codes and product specification data. There is no time or money spent on creating new stencils; instead the user-friendly touch screen allows messages to be created with a few taps.
Handheld inkjet printers combine the convenience of stencilling by hand with the high-resolultion print and zero maintenance appeal of the thermal inkjet printer system. Again, programmed by touch screen and available to use with water-based or solvent-based inks.
Overall, it is the quality of the mark made by an inkjet printer often given as one of the main attractions over branding or stencilling. High resolution inkjet printing offers these unique benefits:
- Print quality – fine logos for creation of (e.g.) FSC logo, or QR codes.
Prints nicely on cracked or curved blocks, branding plate must contact evenly across the surface to stamp the whole design. - Economy – by using outline logos or fonts or by printing smaller a user can control their ink costs.
- Variable data – an electronic system allows use of live date and time, counters, or external variable data for serialisation.
- Adaptable: works for two-way or four-way finished pallets, pallet blocks prior to construction or with a handheld printer after construction.
And with the latest developments in technology, inkjet printers can be combined with UV curing LEDs to offer further benefits:
- Produce a stable, light-fast mark
- Can print on wet substrates, including wet-painted stacks of pallets.
In the words of one customer, who has recently switched to inkjet printing from hot branding:
“We wanted to move away from heat branding, which we were finding both costly and slow. We were very impressed by the flexibility offered to us by inkjet printing. Both the handheld and fixed position printers provide a very sharp image, which is critical for our required marking, and it has speeded up our production techniques tremendously.”
With products and technologies constantly evolving, inkjet printing has the potential to offer marking solutions for every kind of packaging requirement.
Contact Timbermark to find out more on sales@timbermark.co.uk
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