To assess a continuous inkjet printer’s Total Cost of Ownership (TCO), you’ll need to combine:
- The price of the printer
- Its maintenance needs
- Its cost per print
- Any time-saving features
- Its reliability
- The support provided
Hidden costs of printing
It is easy to forget the many costs that’ll add up over a printer’s lifetime. The elements below should be considered when determining the true cost of your coding requirements:
- Efficiency – reliability and true availability of the printer you are investing in
- Efficiency – what is the typical makeup use of the printer you are considering? What other energy-efficient features are available?
- Ease of use – your operators’ time is valuable, so you want to keep any training or consumable changeover times at a minimum
- Ease of use – is the user interface compatible with any other printers? How intuitive is it?
- Flexibility – how easily can the solution meet special coding or project requirements, now and in the future?
Factors to consider when purchasing a continuous ink jet printer
Reliability
Reliability is key to the availability of a printer for its recommended number of hours of use over its required uptime
CIJ printers that don’t meet the exact coding requirements of a production line are more likely to need maintenance. Plus, their cost of consumables (ink or makeup) will be far higher than for a printer with the correct specifications and setup. By investing only a little bit more on the initial capital cost of a printer that meets your needs, you can get twice the output
Ink / Makeup usage
Your company will incur costs for ink or makeup long after the initial purchase of a CIJ Printer. It’s important to consider how many products your factory prints, and therefore how often ink or makeup will need to be replaced.