New solvent ink helps save Signature Seasonings time and money on spice-bottle printing

CHICAGO, Oct. 29, 2012 — HP today introduced a new cost-effective print cartridge with fast-drying ink for printing on semiporous and some nonporous substrates used in product identification coding and marking, mail addressing and variable data imprinting.

The new HP Black 2570 Print Cartridge with HP solvent ink is sold to original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) for use in their industrial printing platforms. Benefits of the new product include:

Ability to address applications requiring printing on semiporous and some nonporous substrates.
Increased productivity with fast dry times(1) and a long decap time that reduces maintenance between jobs.
More prints compared to aqueous-based print cartridges due to smaller drop volume.(2)
Samples produced using the HP Black 2570 Print Cartridge are on display at Pack Expo 2012 in the HP booth (No. N5540).

Reliable quality and ease of use

The HP Black 2570 Print Cartridge can be left uncapped for long periods of time without requiring maintenance. This benefit enables intermittent industrial printing, immediate start-up and limited printhead servicing between print jobs. The quick dry time also minimizes the need for dryer assistance, lowering overhead costs.

With a smaller drop volume, less ink is needed to print with high optical density for text printing such as lot codes as well as two-dimensional barcodes on food and pharmaceutical packaging.(3)

“The HP 2570 cartridge enables manufacturers to print small text and 2-D barcodes on some nonporous substrates,” said Kathy Tobin, vice president and general manager, Specialty Printing Systems, HP. “OEMs can now print on a broader range of substrates, allowing them to expand into new application areas and grow their business.”

Boosting production efficiency

When looking for a solution to meet its intermittent printing needs, Signature Seasonings , a full-service custom spice and seasoning company, turned to RSI , an HP OEM partner. RSI has integrated the HP Black 2570 Print Cartridge into its RSI Hydra printing platform, which Signature Seasonings uses to mark small character lot numbers on spice bottles.

With Signature Seasoning’s old printing technology, the maintenance required to start and stop each print run contributed to costly downtime and wasted supplies. Now the company reliably prints accurate and legible tracking codes with increased production efficiency and the ability to print on a wider selection of substrates.

“When our team is ready to start printing, we just give the printhead a quick wipe and it’s ready to go,” said Jay Neuhoff, vice president, Signature Seasonings. “Downtime really isn’t an issue.”

Adding to the ease of use, the HP cartridge is self-contained and has an easy snap-in/snap-out design, so customers can quickly replace it and reduce time-consuming routine maintenance. This feature allows anyone at Signature Seasonings to learn to operate and maintain the printer in a matter of minutes.

RSI Hydra also benefits from the range of nonporous media compatible with the HP 2570 cartridge. Signature Seasonings plans to expand its use of the RSI Hydra to print directly onto corrugated cases and flexible plastic bags as well as its seasoning bottles.