Written by Andy Neat
Good morning everyone and welcome to my second written blog of the year! Alternatively, as you may have seen, I have been desperately trying to maintain my youth by filming vlogs instead of writing blogs. But with these fancy 4K HD cameras we have, there’s no hiding the sprouting grey hair on my chin or the wrinkles around my eyes making it rather clear that I am in fact a man in my 30’s.
Moving swiftly on….
We have more marking systems to tell you about this year and we’ve gone back to where it all began…well almost. Technically speaking the first marking system we sold was a pen! But swiftly after that, such systems as the Plotter were available which is technically still a pen but it was moved around by robotic arm…still pretty cool to watch though.
What I am talking about is our first real marking system which was able to print large batches of markers of multiple varieties using an intelligent drying process and most importantly it was at high speed. That’s right, the Bluemark.
The original Bluemark X1 was released in 2007 in the UK and was a huge step up from using a plotter in many ways. The biggest point was that the Blumark used a UV light lamp inside to cure the ink INSTANTLY. But why was it named the Bluemark? The answer is simple, the UV light lamp was blue of course. Fast forward a couple of years and we improved it by replacing the UV light lamp with LEDs meaning it uses less energy and no heat. Oh, and did I mention the ink curing gives off no gases? We’ve got to do our bit for the planet.
Fast forward again a couple more years and we improved it again by making the Bluemark CLED which was simply making the LED’s more compact (CLED) speeding up the entire process and giving you 10,000 markers per hour. This installment to the range also introduced aluminium marking as well. But apart from UV light, fast printing and just generally being awesome, what do all these printers have in common? They all only printed in black.
Yes, that’s right it’s taking me 4 paragraphs to get to the point. For those that know me, that’s normal.
In 2018 we’ve released the first Bluemark that prints in colour, HD 2400dpi colour to be specific, meaning you could probably print off a few holiday snaps too if you like. But we understand that the luxury of printing colour isn’t required for everyone. If you want a new Bluemark you won’t have to pay for something you don’t want which is why we’ve released two models, the Bluemark ID (black ink) and the Bluemark ID COLOR giving you a choice, and of course a price difference.
These models still give you the fast UV light curing ink printing which has been boosted to 21,000 markers per hour but also allows you operate them without a PC very much like the ever popular Thermomark Prime. All our new marking systems will have an Android touchscreen making your marking more flexible in a sense you can load all your projects from a PC onto the printer to save for future use or you can create them all from scratch on the printer without a PC. Very cool!
As I’ve said, the Bluemark ID COLOR can print up to 2400dpi, but the Bluemark ID also has an impressive 600dpi available too. What’s more is that the material range has been boosted too by adding our entire US material range to the mix meaning there are over 1,300 different materials available to print. You can mark pretty much anything in a control panel or machine and so much more.
The Bluemark ID and ID COLOR is yet another stamp in the world of marking by Phoenix Contact showing that when times change and technologies change something as basic as marking can change with it bringing you into a smart world of manufacturing and future technology all from a simple marking system.
Thanks for reading and check it out here.
Get in touch with Andy on aneat@phoenixcontact.com
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