Atexco has a factory in Tanjin capable of producing 10,000 tons of digital ink per year. It has also acquired a factory in Germany and has an R&D partnership in Osaka, Japan.
These investments allow it to offer its customers an integrated solution of machine, software and ink among the most competitive on the market.
Today Vegapress can use two types of ink:
1. Offset Ink: Suitable for uncoated offset paper.
2. HQ Pigment Ink: Ink with more pigment and greater drying capacity. Improves the gloss in uncoated offset paper and also allows printing on coated paper.
This ink is easier to dry and adapts to the characteristics of coated paper in terms of drying and anchoring
Average consumption calculation
Thanks to the high number of installed units, the average consumption calculation of installed units is very reliable and reflects the reality of the majority of companies.
The average of installed units provides us with the following data:
1 kg of BLACK ink can print from 50,000 to 65,000 A4 pages = from 3,125 to 4,062 square meters
1 kg of CMYK ink can print from 12,000 to 20,000 A4 pages = from 750 to 1,250 square meters.
Predictive software estimate
Another method for calculating the ink consumption of a job in advance is to use the software of a machine. In fact, the software on board the machine is able to estimate the ink needed to print a job file.
Warning:
Ink consumption depends on several variables:
- the degree of absorbency of the paper
- the percentage of image coverage on a page
- the definition of the images. Images with different levels of precision call to the print heads different sizes of ink drops. For this reason the data reported by the software is precise but may not correspond perfectly to reality. In fact, the ink calculator software to analyze the files, calculates the data in the best way but does not include all the variables. It is therefore useful to have a reference value. For a more accurate data it is always recommended to print a test page and check the consumption afterwards.
Hidden consumption
There are two types of consumption that no one talks about: consumption during the head cleaning phase and consumption of the flashlines in the color machine.
Consumption during the head cleaning phase: pay attention to the consumption that no one talks about. During the head cleaning phase, one of the activities consists of purging the nozzles. The purged ink will then be eliminated and therefore will not be used in printing. It is correct to point out that cleaning the heads also has its cost in terms of ink consumption. In any case, we are not talking about large quantities of ink.
Flash Line Ink Cost:
This consumption is very low and can be ignored but it is good to know it.
1200 ink drops of the largest size are dense and parallel to form a 1 inch line.
Multiple 1 inch lines form a complete flashline. 1 inch equals 2.54 centimeters.
Inches:
For VegaPress 440 series, 432 mm = 43.2 cm = 17 inches
For VegaPress 660 series, 648 mm = 64.8 cm = 25.5 inches
Maximum ink drop size:
For Kyocera 600 dpi print head, there is 12 pL, 12 pL = 0.0000000012 ml
The formula of flashline ink = 1200 How many inches Maximum ink drop size How many lines Ink density
For Kyocera 1200 dpi print head, there is 5 pL, 5 pL = 0.0000000005 mL For example, the customer is interested in VegaPress 660M-SD
Then the ink consumption for the whole width = 1200 25.5 0.000000012mL * 61.2=0.00264g
It is cut 3 A4 of 660 printer, there is about 0.00088g for each A4.
How many lines of flash line are there in a color machine?
Usually there is the setting of 6 lines as flash line. Of course, you can set 8 or 10 lines.
Ink density in grams / ml conversion
It is recommended to use 1 ml * 1.2 g / ml = 1.2 g, 1.2 kg / L as a conservative calculation.
How many kg of ink does a machine consume?
From our experience, for the 440M model, it can consume up to 1 ton per year per work shift. For the 660M model, up to 1.3 ton per year per work shift.
Ink drop:
• For the 1200 dpi Kyocera print head, there are three ink drop sizes such as 1.5 pl, 3 pl and 5 pl
• For the 600 dpi Kyocera print head, there are three ink drop sizes such as 5 pl, 7 pl and 12 pl