An energy curing system that enables food brands to mass-personalise products via food-safe inkjet printing has been launched.
Ebeam Technologies, a brand of Swiss technology company The Comet Group, launched the Ebeam Inkjet Dryer (EID) in response to demand for digital printing which personalises packaging.
The company said concerns about food contamination by toxic ultraviolet (UV) photoinitiators had previously prevented the use of inkjet printers for food packaging.
“Previous printing technologies have resulted in more than 100 incidents being reported by the EU’s Rapid Alert System for Food and Feed (RASFF), where UV photoinitiators have contaminated food after migrating from the packaging into the food,” said Ebeam's Ian Bland.
“Ebeam has eliminated the need for UV photoiniators in inkjet inks and miniaturised electron beam hardware so that it can be easily integrated into inkjet printers to cure new, commercially available ebeam-curable inks.”
The EID is a compact, sealed ebeam lamp that produces a precisely controlled beam of electrons to instantly cure ebeam inks.
It is being demonstrated for the first time at drupa 2016, which finishes this Friday.