Metal Can Coding Faults: Fixing CIJ Chip and Print Issues Fast

Summary: Most CIJ faults on a metal can line trace back to four places: a fluid family mismatch the chip correctly refuses, ink that never keyed to a wet or chilled surface, a chip seated badly after a changeover, and lane-to-lane differences in head distance. Check those before tuning the print head.

Metal cans punish every shortcut on a CIJ line. The surface does not absorb, the can sweats on the way from the cooler, and the curve means the head never sits flat against the product. When a code fails on a can line, the cause is usually in one of four places.

Recognition Fails When the Fluid Family Does Not Match

If the machine refuses a cartridge or a make-up solvent bottle outright, that is a recognition fault, not a print fault. The chip data and the printer’s loaded fluid family disagree.

Check what the printer log says about the rejected item before touching the head. On can lines running two shifts with different products, mismatched fluid sets get fitted during a changeover and the fault surfaces at the next startup.

The Code Rubs Off Because the Ink Never Keyed

Wet or chilled cans are the usual cause. Condensation sits between the ink and the metal, the ink dries on a film of water rather than on the surface, and the code wipes away at the first handling station.

Two fixes work: bring the cans to room temperature before the coder, or specify an ink formulated for damp metal. Neither is a printer setting, which is why so much time gets lost tuning a head that was never the problem.

Chip Faults That Only Appear After a Changeover

On a can line the chip faults cluster around changeovers, not steady running: a cartridge fitted in a hurry, a chip seated at a slight angle, a bottle swapped between machines.

Fit the chip with the holder clean and dry. Solvent residue on the contacts is the most common reason a chip reads once and drops out mid-shift.

Where to Look When Only One Lane Fails

If one lane of a multi-lane line produces rejected codes while the others run clean, stop looking at the printer. The difference is in the lane: conveyor height, can spin, or a guide rail pushing the can off the head’s focal distance.

Measure head-to-can distance on the good lane and the bad one. A millimetre of difference shows up as a broken character, and no chip or fluid change recovers it.

Keeping the Line Running Through a Fluid Change

Order fluid, make-up solvent and chips as one matched set per machine, and keep a spare set on the floor. When a bottle is refused mid-shift, the changeover costs minutes rather than a shift of downtime.

TOPMARK supplies compatible chips and matched fluid sets for VJ, DM, Bentsai and the wider CIJ and TIJ field, batch-referenced and grouped so a can line can be kept to one fluid family.

For more on CIJ TIJ consumables and compatible chips, browse our industry insights.