Rachel joined Cal Poly in 2018 after she received her PhD in Paper and Printing Science from Western Michigan University. On top of being the Cal Poly TAGA chapter advisor, Rachel has been teaching digital and offset printing methods, materials for GrC applications and senior project. Her research interests focus on printed electronics, ink and paper interactions, and smart packaging applications.
Digital Printing for Medical Device Packaging
Dr. Xiaoying Rong, Dina Vees, and Dr. Rachel Ma, California Polytechnic State University
Medical device companies often have numerous small SKUs for their medical packaging. Digital printing for medical device packages would allow more effective full-color graphic printing, the ability for color-coding, and brand colors without using spot colors. The safety of medical device packaging is critical and is required to follow strict industry standards. Medical device packaging substrates are typically not applied with surface modification due to the sterile requirements. Medical grade Tyvek has different printability compared to graphic grade Tyvek.
This study investigated the current technological options of digital printing on medical grade Tyvek, including direct contact and indirect contact packaging. Currently, there is very limited information on direct contact digital inks available. The existing water-based inkjet inks for direct contact applications are limited to black inks for marking, it does not allow for full-color graphics. UV inkjet inks are not for direct contact applications due to the safety concerns of using photo initiators.
This study also assessed the print quality of water-based and UV graphics inkjet inks on medical grade Tyvek. The result shows that the inks tested do not qualify for direct contact applications at the time of the study. Best practices in designing for digital printing on medical-grade Tyvek, including smallest fonts and line width for legibility, based on the quality analysis of the printed samples, are suggested. Water-based inkjet inks had significant spreading on medical grade Tyvek, therefore, are limited to relatively larger fonts and heavier lines while designing for such substrates.
Digital printing has exciting potential in medical device packaging production, especially through inkjet printing technology. Collaborations between ink suppliers and printhead manufacturers can speed up the development of direct contact inkjet inks for the medical device packaging industry.