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| FAQs Conventional coding & marking products |
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| FAQs |
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Do you have questions before choosing the most effective way of marking your products? Click on the topics you're interested in: |
| About aps |
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| Who is aps? |
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The aps group is a coding & marking company specialising in industrial ink jet printing. Our interest is to develop alternative solutions for your product marking enabling you to significantly reduce your marking costs. The aps team consists of former board members and professionals from market leading ink jet printer manufacturers. They have many years of experience and an excellent knowledge of industrial marking. They can offer you competent and independent advice in all areas of industrial marking. |
| Who does aps compete with? |
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As well as being a technological leader in the development of ground-breaking thermal ink jet printers, aps is a major international supplier of fluids for all major brands of industrial ink jet printers. aps thus competes with other OEM manufacturer, supplying their customers with alternative consumables – of the same quality but for significantly better prices.Thereby aps weakens the monopoly of the OEM and creates significantly better price conditions for the customer. |
| What is the difference between aps and alternative fluid suppliers? |
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Different from many alternative suppliers, aps staff have formerly held significant key positions in the industrial marking market and therefore have a detailed knowledge of all important areas no matter whether it concerns safety, sales, service or development. When you talk to us you'll notice the difference. With its worldwide sales and service network aps offers a significant advantage for companies having multiple locations worldwide but wanting to co-operate with a single source supplier. |
| About aps marking systems |
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| There are so many different systems and technologies in the market. What were the reasons to develop another marking system? |
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The purpose for developping apsolute has been to bring to the market a unique solution which answers to nowadays requirements. This new solution has harnessed the strengths of the exisiting coding solutions while leaving the drawbacks aside (heavy maintenance, high cost of ownership, high running cost...). |
| The cost of ownership for our today’s ink jet printer (CIJ technology) is very high (first investment, high repair costs, regular exchange of gear parts, high consumption costs). Which costs would we have to expect with the apsolute? |
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When comparing the total cost of ownership (including cost of ink, solvent, cleaning solution, spare parts for preventive maintence and for remedial maintenance, service and cost per hour of downtime) the cost saving with apsolute can go to 70%, depending on the production range. |
| With our current marking system we have constantly troubles with breakdowns and repairs. Which benefits does the apsolute bring in terms of reliability? |
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Breakdowns and repairs are due to moving and aging parts (pumps, filters...) used inside the equipment. Due to the print cartriddge concept apsolute doesn't use such parts. The risk of breakdowns is therefore significantly limited. |
| Our today’s marking equipment requires high maintenance. How much maintenance time does the apsolute require? |
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Thanks to its cartridge concept apsolute includes no moving part and therefore requires no other maintenance than changing the cartridge once it is empty and cleaning the nozzle plate if it's dirty. |
| How much training will our operators and maintenance staff need when making the switch from CIJ to the apsolute? |
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Requiring zero maintenance no training will be needed on the apsolute. Once installed it will take less than half a day for your operators to learn how to create and manage messages. |
| Can the apsolute offer a good adhesion on plastics? |
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apsolute has a range of inks for the printing on different types of porous and non-porous substrates including plastics (such as PD-HD, PVC...). Moreover, we at aps work intensively on adding new inks to the catalogue. |
| We are a pharmaceutical company. Our industry requires clean and environmentally friendly consumables. What can aps offer? |
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Reasons for the dirtiness of ink jet printers are fluids running in the system and generating leaks, the change of consumables or maintenance which requires the dismantling of the machine next to the line. The cartridge concept of the apsolute avoids these three phenomenons. |
| How much time does it take to change the ink? |
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It takes only a few seconds to change ink cartridge. |
| We need to equip 3 production lines with new marking systems, each line running with different speeds and printing on different materials (on the plastic cap of lipsticks, on the plastic blister and the outer packaging for lipsticks). Could we realize these different applications with the apsolute printer? |
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Depending on the model chosen apsolute can drive up to 4 heads on 4 different production lines, printing different messages with different ink types and ink colours. In case described above, you can use one head with muli fast-dry ink to code on the lipstick cap, one head with multi fast-dry ink to code on the plastic blister and one or two heads with water based ink to code on the outer case - with only one controller. |
| How many apsolute printers would we need to print a text of 6 lines and a total height of 48mm? |
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Only one controller with four heads stitched together can perform such a printing. This configuration has mainly been done for the replacement of labels on outer cases. |
| We need to print barcodes. What about the print quality and print speed? |
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With its adjustable vertical and horizontal resolutions apsolute can print high quality 1D barcodes (e.g. EAN13, EAN8, Code 39…) and 2D barcodes (datamatrix) at up to 600 dpi. Different from matrix based systems like CIJ printers apsolute as a graphic printing system doesn't need to slow down the system to print a barcode but can print barcodes in the complete range of print speed from 30 to 300 m/min, depending on the resolution used. |
| Is the apsolute printer suitable for harsh environments? |
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apsolute has proven itself to be a product well designed for harsh environments such as the timber or extrusion industry... |
| About aps consumables |
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| What range of consumables does aps offer? |
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aps offers more than 200 different fluids (inks, additives, cleaners etc.) for all major industrial ink jet printers (small and large character printers) used for product marking. This makes aps one of the suppliers with the largest selection of jet printing inks on the market today. aps consumables are used in a wide variety of applications in many industries including packaging, food and beverage, pharmaceuticals, cosmetics, plastics and cables, electronics, addressing and personalization. |
| How will I find the right consumables for my particular equipment and application? |
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aps offers so-called plug-and-play inks which correspond 100% to the inks supplied by the OEM. |
| Does aps supply other than plug-and-play-inks? |
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In addition to plug-and-play inks aps offers inks for which the OEM has no comparable fluid. They have been developed on request by customers for their special applications or requirements. It goes without saying that these inks are also 100% adapted to those customers printers. |
| Can I choose my own ink supplier? |
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Yes. Surely, you have the right to use consumables of your choice in your ink jet printers - so long as they are compatible with the printers and meet the requirements of the application. With the ability to choose your ink supplier you eliminate potential monopoly pricing from the OEM. |
| Do we need any kind of refitting before making the change? |
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No. All standard aps products are 100% compatible with the original products and can therefore be used in the printer without preparation. Flushing the printer is not necessary. |
| How safe are aps consumables? |
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aps consumables are developed and manufactured in a state of the art facility in Germany operating under the most stringent conditions and regulations. Prior to their market introduction they have been tested for months under real operating conditions. This is a signicant difference to pirates who have no own development nor manufacturing but buy their products whereever they are cheaper. With aps you can be sure to get a constantly high quality at first hand and that we monitore 100% the process from the development to the distribution of our products. |
| The ink jet printer OEM stated that my ink jet printers lose their operational safety if I use alternative consumables. Is that correct? |
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As they have the same characteristics as the original products aps consumables do not negatively affect the safety of your ink jet printers. |
| The ink jet printer OEM said that if I use aps consumables I will void my warranty. Is that correct? |
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As a consumer you have the right to use the most cost effective consumables and spare parts for your ink jet printers so long as the functionality of your printers is not compromised. By using compatible fluids the OEM cannot void your warranty. You have a statutory right under law. |
| What can we do if we meet technical problems? |
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aps has its own technical team with significant experience in the servicing of ink jet printers. Our technical team offers you all services including technical advice and hotline, repair or maintenance of your ink jet printers as well as training for your staff. |