At Interpack 2023, an international tradeshow for the packaging sector, HP Inc. showcased new advancements to its Thermal Inkjet (TIJ) technology in Hall 8A at booth B56. Aimed at driving growth, innovation, and regulatory compliance in the food and pharma industries, HP says its TIJ technology is the printing industry’s go-to digital solution for the package coding and marking of consumer goods.

For ingestible products, like food and pharmaceuticals, packaging and product identification processes are becoming increasingly complex and sophisticated due to strict regulatory requirements and a growing risk of counterfeits worldwide. In response, demand from packaging line operators is on the rise for TIJ-enabled high-resolution barcodes, QR codes, data matrices, as well as alphanumeric text that are scannable, legible, and durable across a wide range of packaging substrates.

“As businesses seek compliance via specialty solutions, HP Thermal Inkjet stands out as one of the most favorable options in the food and pharmaceutical industries,” says Philippe Lesage, VP and GM, Specialty Printing & Technology Solutions at HP. “With HP TIJ technology, brands can reduce maintenance costs and gain efficiencies from higher uptime on their packaging manufacturing processes, while fostering personal and meaningful experiences for their customers.”

HP’s expertise paired with the versatility and quality of genuine inks helps manufacturers guarantee that printed product identification is non-toxic and will remain legible throughout the manufacturing and distribution process. With this top of mind for food and pharma manufacturers in particular at Interpack 2023, HP will release its newest solvent ink, HP2600, showing excellent durability results on tested materials such as CCL and Broadridge untreated polyethylene. This ink will offer consistent alphanumerical codes and bar code print quality over the life of the cartridge. As part of HP’s focus on the environment, a substantial effort has been made to design an ink which is compliant with current and future regulatory requirements.

Building on HP’s continual evolution of TIJ, the company will also display for the first time its new HP Thermal Inkjet (TIJ) 4.0 108mm bulk solution for coding and marking on secondary packaging. The system enables larger print swaths without stitching required, and at high speed with high resolution. Built in smart servicing technology of nozzles as well as more environmentally friendly inks will help customers minimize waste and downtime, both of which impact the bottom line.

Innovation and versatility are needed to meet a broad range of packaging goals and demands, including personalization at mass scale. HP’s venerable Fixed Imager 1000 (FI-1000) print engine enables personalization directly onto the last-step of a production line, allowing small to medium size companies to take advantage of short-run, on-demand customized printing and fast turn-around of full-color package printing while eliminating the need for pre-printed labelstocks.