I've handled equipment purchases for our plant for seven years now. In that time, I've personally made four significant buying mistakes. Combined, they cost my company roughly $31,000 in wasted budget, rejected batches, and emergency repairs. I keep a checklist now so no one on my team repeats them.
Most articles about coding and marking equipment are written by people trying to sell you something. This one isn't. I just don't want you to make the same calls I did.
Here's the thing about choosing a Videojet marking system: there is no universal right answer. The correct choice depends on three things. How much downtime actually costs you. What substrate you're marking. And whether your team can troubleshoot equipment in-house.
Let me walk you through the three scenarios I've lived through. You'll recognize yourself in one of them.
Scenario 1: You Run Continuous High-Volume Production
If your line runs more than one shift, and a stopped line means idle workers, missed delivery dates, and phone calls from angry customers—buy new. Get the service contract. Don't overthink it.
I learned this the expensive way.
In 2021, I bought a used Videojet CIJ printer for our main packaging line. A 1510 model, about 4,000 hours on it. The demo looked great. The price was half of a new unit. I felt like a hero.
It failed in the first week. Printhead clogged, then the ink system started acting up. We lost six hours of production across two shifts. That incident alone cost more in lost output than I saved on the purchase price.
Downtime is expensive. Period.
If you're in this boat, get a new printer from Videojet Systems International or an authorized distributor. Make sure the contract includes preventive maintenance. The machine is only part of what you're buying; the support infrastructure is the rest. Another angle: if you're printing barcodes or address blocks on mail pieces, USPS has strict print quality standards—reflectance, contrast, quiet zone dimensions. A tired printhead on an aging used printer won't stay within those specs for long. A new unit with a verified head and regular maintenance will.
What was best practice in 2021 may not apply in 2025. But this principle hasn't budged: when your line can't afford to stop, you can't gamble on used equipment.
Scenario 2: Moderate Volume, Tight Budget, or a Backup Line
Here's where my advice might surprise you.
Everything I'd read said buying used industrial printers is a trap. In practice, I found the opposite: for a low-to-moderate volume line, a well-maintained used unit can deliver 90% of the value at 40% of the cost.
But there's a catch. Three catches, actually.
1. Printhead condition. The printhead is the heart of a CIJ printer. A worn or damaged one can cost more to replace than the printer itself. Ask for print quality samples from recent production runs. Look at them with a magnifying glass. It took me two years of buying used gear to understand that head condition matters more than total hours.
2. Service history. Request the full service log. Look for consistent preventive maintenance from a qualified tech. If the log has gaps of six months or more, walk away. I don't care how good the price looks.
3. Ink system cleanliness. If the previous owner ran anything other than original Videojet fluids, the system may be contaminated. I assumed 'same specifications' meant identical results across ink brands. Didn't verify. Turned out the cheap ink left residue inside the lines. Three weeks and $800 in original cleaning solution later, we finally got clean prints.
The saving grace for me: the used unit I bought had been serviced by an authorized tech. That made all the difference. The same model from a seller who couldn't produce documentation would have been a straight-up gamble.
I should add that sticking with Videojet's original inks and cleaning solutions matters. We tried generic once. Machine ran okay for about two weeks, then started spitting intermittent unreadable codes. We flushed the system, swapped a couple parts, went back to original supplies. Problem gone. The savings weren't worth the uncertainty. Put another way: we paid $800 to learn a lesson that a $40 bottle of generic cleaner should never have cost us.
Scenario 3: You're Marking Wood, Cardboard, or Need Permanent Marks—Go Laser
This is the scenario most people overlook. They default to inkjet because it's familiar.
But here's what I learned: if you're marking wood, certain plastics, or cardboard, a laser can run circles around a CIJ unit. No ink. No solvents. No printhead to clean. Just a mark that won't smear, fade, or wash off.
CO2 Laser for Wood and Organic Materials
A CO2 laser is the workhorse for wood marking. It burns or chars the surface with precision, leaving a permanent, high-contrast mark. Consumables? Basically none beyond electricity and the occasional lens wipe.
In 2023, I visited a furniture manufacturer in Amarillo, Texas. They make custom wooden signs and industrial crates. They'd switched from inkjet to a wood laser marking machine, and their per-unit marking cost dropped by roughly 70%. No ink cartridges to replace. No codes smearing on porous surfaces. And the mark is permanent, which customers actually pay a premium for.
We installed a CO2 laser on our own wood crate line in 2024. Eight months of running, zero unscheduled downtime. I'm still not used to that.
Three years ago, I would've bought another CIJ without thinking. Now I know better.
Cold Fiber Laser for Metal and High-Contrast Applications
Fiber lasers are a different tool entirely. The wavelength isn't absorbed well by organic materials, so they're not for wood. But for metal parts, hardened tools, or any application demanding a permanent, high-contrast mark, a cold fiber laser is hard to beat.
One advantage that doesn't get enough attention: a fiber laser has no consumables at all. No ink. No make-up fluid. No solvent. No printhead. Operating cost is essentially electricity.
The downside? Upfront cost runs higher than a CIJ printer. That scares people off. I get it. But it took me three years and about 12 equipment purchases to understand that total cost of ownership matters more than purchase price. It's not just what the machine costs. It's what it costs to keep it running. Fiber laser wins that math almost every time if you have the volume to justify the investment.
How to Figure Out Which Scenario You're In
Still uncertain? Here are the four questions I now ask before every equipment decision:
1. What's one hour of downtime worth to you?
If it's more than $500, buy new. Get the service contract. Done.
2. What exactly are you marking?
Wood, cardboard, or heat-sensitive plastics? Look hard at a CO2 laser. Metal or high-wear components? Cold fiber laser. Flexible films, cables, or general packaging? A CIJ inkjet is still the right tool.
3. Can your team troubleshoot in-house?
If you've got a maintenance tech who's comfortable with ink systems and fluid lines, used equipment becomes viable. If nobody on-site can tell a printhead from a nozzle, buy new with a service contract. That contract is worth every dollar.
4. Can the seller produce a clean service history?
If an authorized technician hasn't touched the machine regularly, move on. Simple as that.
I wish I'd asked these questions in 2019. Would've saved me $31,000. The bigger cost was the time lost debugging, the late deliveries, and the credibility I had to claw back. That's harder to quantify and harder to recover.
Here's the good news. The industry is evolving in ways that benefit buyers. The quality of used equipment on the market today is better than it was five years ago, because companies maintain better records and track their machines more carefully. Laser prices have come down. Suppliers share service data more openly. The fundamentals haven't changed—verify before you buy, match the technology to the substrate, calculate total cost of ownership, not sticker price. But the execution has transformed.
One word of caution before you go. If your marketing team wants to tout your new laser setup as 'solvent-free' or 'zero VOC,' make sure you can back it up. Per FTC Green Guides (ftc.gov), environmental claims must be substantiated. That's not just a suggestion; it's a rule. I mention it because the last thing you want after getting your equipment right is to trip over an unsubstantiated claim on your own spec sheet.
Final thought.
You're going to make a decision about marking equipment eventually. Whether it's a first Videojet CIJ printer, a used backup unit, or a laser upgrade, the choice isn't straightforward. But if you know your downtime cost, your substrate, and your team's capability, you're already ahead of where I was.
And if you're ever in doubt, find someone who's made the mistakes and ask them directly. It's a lot cheaper than making your own.
