Ink for Polystyrene – How to print on Egg Cartons

Egg Batch and Date Codes Required: How to print on Foam?

Egg farms around the globe are switching to Inkjet technology for the coding of variable information on their egg cartons. Manufacturers are required to mark information on their packaging such as lot/batch numbers, expiration dates, and barcodes.

The information on egg cartons (carton, polystyrene or plastic) is important for tracking individual units as well as batches of units, quality control, and aiding in the sale of the products. Coding this information onto egg cartons is a necessary and vital part of the product’s life cycle.

Choosing the Right ink for your Carton

With this in mind, here are the important considerations when choosing which inkjet ink for egg carton coding.

  • Type of substrate being marked? ie., pulp, plastic, polystyrene
  • Color of ink required? ie., black, blue, red, green
  • Printing frequency? ie., continuous, intermittent
  • Length of time for ink to dry? ie., less than 2 seconds
  • Proximity of printer relative to substrate? ie., within 5mm

Case Printing Solutions offers Fast Dry Solvent Ink with Long Decap (CPS – 800 – LD) as an all-around ink solution for egg cartons other than paper pulp. The ink was formulated to address nozzle clogging during intermittent print applications, as frequently occurs in egg carton coding. Best of all, you can count on Case Printing’s Fast Dry Solvent Ink to print readable codes on the first carton after startup, and on every carton thereafter.

Other advantages of Case Fast Dry Solvent ink with Long Decap include:

  • Ability to print on glossy labels found on some egg cartons
  • Longer shelf life, so the ink doesn’t dry-out in the print nozzles
  • Improved smudge resistance, compared to other solvent black inks

The Fast Dry LD solvent black ink can be printed from virtually all cartridge  inkjet coders (based on the HP inkjet technology) found on our list of approximately 30 printer companies. To test the print quality of Fast Dry LD Solvent Ink on your specific substrate, we will gladly produce print samples for you on your substrate.

Printing on paper pulp Egg Cartons instead?

We also offer ink solutions for porous egg carton materials (ie pulp cartons), as those volumes continue to hold steady at egg packaging facilities.