Please join us in welcoming Rusty Masters to our Company. He will be joining us full time starting August 10, 2015 as Purchasing Manager/Customer Service/Technology Support. Rusty will be responsible for purchasing, vendor relationships, product sourcing, and will serve on our vendor selection committee.

Rusty brings with him 30 years of business leadership in management and distribution as well as 20 years of experience in information technology. He is a graduate of West Virginia University with a Bachelor of Science in Industrial Engineering and a Bachelor of Science in Animal Science.

Rusty can be contacted at rusty.masters@ssipackaging.com or by phone at 804.649.1111.

Welcome to the team Rusty!

It has always been difficult to run pigmented inks with light, high-contrast colors like white, light blue or yellow in small character Continuous Inkjet (CIJ) printers. Unlike black or darker colored dye based inks, pigmented inks require effective agitation to keep pigments from separating from the solvent carrier. Once the pigments separated, the sediment will clog the nozzle, filters, transfer valves and cause the print to lose contrast. The Leibinger Jet3pi Pigmented printer has numerous design features that enable very reliable operation, low maintenance and excellent print quality with pigmented inks. Here’s why the Jet3pi Pigmented printer is best-in-class:

• Leibinger’s unique printhead design retracts the ink gutter into the nozzle when the printer is shut down to form an air-tight seal, protecting these key components. Charge electrodes stay clean, keeping print quality consistent.
•  Frequency of printhead maintenance is typically weeks or even months instead of every few days or daily. 
• The “closed loop” system allows an automatic “Interval Mode” to recirculate ink throughout the entire system when not in use. This is especially important with pigmented inks to prevent pigment separation when the printer is not running.
  

The Jet3pi Pigmented printer is used extensively throughout many industries including wire, cable, pipe, extruded products, parts marking and packaging.

When a Leibinger printer is started, ink pressure is stabilized before the gutter returns to the open position. This is where conventional ink jets falter because the ink stream can “wobble” while pressure is building and clog the narrow slot within the charge electrodes causing poor print quality, fault conditions and messy clean-up. This printhead design also eliminates the “auto flush” cycle at shut-down which can dilute the ink supply and reduce print quality and contrast. 

Unique Features of the Jet3pi Especially for Pigmented Inks
    1.    The variable speed, magnetically coupled stirring motor on the bottom of the internal ink reservoir continuously mixes the ink when the printer is running. There is a stirring bar within the reservoir that effectively keeps pigments from separating. 

    2.    Ink is pumped through the main filter and into the bottom of the cone shaped ink chamber within the pressure tank. Pigment residue cannot collect since the incoming flow agitates the ink within the chamber. 

    3.    Leibinger’s diaphragm type ink and suction pumps run much cooler and don’t “grind” on the pigments like gear driven pumps in competitive printers. The result is much longer pump life and less degradation of the ink over time. 

    4.    Leibinger printers are designed to enable component level service rather than replacement of expensive modules or subassemblies that are not field serviceable. 

    5.    Preventive maintenance is recommended twice yearly. Jet3 PM kits are inexpensive and easy to install by either the customer or Leibinger technicians. 


All Leibinger printers have an “interval mode” feature which will automatically start the printer at programmable intervals up to 3 times daily when not in use. This feature is especially important for pigmented inks to keep the ink mixed. Competitive printers may claim to have a similar feature but only the Jet3pi will recirculate ink throughout the entire hydraulic system including the printhead and nozzle, not just the ink reservoir. This is key to prevent pigments from settling and accumulating within the fluid handling components. Almost no make-up solvent is consumed during interval mode.

SSI Packaging Group is proud to provide the Jet3pi CIj printer featuring pigmented inks.  Download the whitepaper and specification PDF here.

There’s been quite a bit of conversation about food waste this summer.  As a way of clearing up some common questions about date labels on food packages, let’s look at what they actually mean.

When browsing the shelves in a grocery store you’ll notice 4 main types of date codes on products.  Each of these codes are for a specific target group and mean different things.

“best by” - This is date code is a guide for the average consumer.  According to David Fikes, vice President of Consumer/Community Affairs and Communications for Food Marketing Institute, an item labeled “best by” usually means that the product will taste best by a specific date.  However, the consumer may be able to consume it following that date, with a few exceptions.

“use by” - This is just another way of stating “best by” and means the same thing.  Someone will have the best experience with a product prior to the “use by” or “best by” date.

“sell by” - When items are stocked on shelves, employees use the “sell by” date to determine if they can place it on the shelves for sale.  Therefore, this date is targeting the retailer and not the consumer.  The product will probably be just fine after the "sell by" date, but the store and manufacture want it off the shelves quickly to rotate in new stock.

“expiration date” - Baby formula and a few other baby food products may include a true “expiration date.”  After the “expiration date” the nutrients in these baby-related food items may begin to diminish and not be beneficial for the infant.  If an item has an "expiration date" on it, then it's there because of federal regulations.

The bottom line is that these dates have less to do with safety and more to do with quality.  There are, of course, exceptions such as dairy products, fresh vegetables, and fresh meats.  For these items one should check resources such as the Safe Storage chart we posted in January, 2015 or use the new FDA FookKeeper app.

A useful tool for consumers to check the safety of foods is a recently release app but he FDA called FoodKeeper.  This helpful app enables consumers to look up the shelf life of food items before and after they are opened.  The FDA released this app to help prevent food waste.

• Download it in iTunes Here
  
• Download it at Google Play Here

SSI Packaging Group is committed to food safety and reducing waste.  Through our marking and coding solutions for food packaging manufacturers can be assured their products are label correctly and efficiently and consumers will be able to clearly read date codes that relate to their buying experience.  Our CIJ printers like the Jet2neo are ideal for food marking and coding with it’s sealed nozzles that never clog or dry out.  The newly released Jet3up is ready to use in any industry for almost any application and can be used with pigmented inks.  SSI Packaging also offers the Matthews e-Mark series laser marking and coding solutions that provide surgical precession coding with virtually zero maintenance.  Contact us for the best, most affordable marking and coding solution for your specific need at 804.649.1111 or sales@ssipackaging.com