In the world of industrial coding & marking, cost per print is one of the best-kept secrets — but it shouldn’t be.

For too long, manufacturers have focused on line speed and throughput without fully understanding the hidden costs in their carton and box coding operations. With ink usage often opaque, and maintenance or solvent costs buried in supplier contracts, the real cost to print each barcode, batch code, or label has remained elusive.

That’s where Foenix Coding is different. The FX ONE is so proud of its efficiency, that is shares the cost per print, to its customers in real time. This clarity gives production managers, finance teams, and line operators a new level of control over printing costs — enabling them to make informed, strategic decisions.

 

Historically, coding was just another production step — a necessary evil. But with rising energy, supply chain, and labour costs, every micro-efficiency counts. If you're printing thousands of cartons a day, even saving half a penny per code can add up to tens of thousands in annual savings.

CIJ (Continuous Inkjet) printers — long the default in primary packaging — run continuously, consuming not just ink but also solvent (make-up fluid). Worse still, when a line is idle, solvent continues to evaporate. In hot climates or for low-throughput operations, this can result in 10x higher print costs than necessary.

 

With Foenix’s gravity-fed printer design, there’s no solvent loss through evaporation and no ink waste. The ink is dispensed in controlled picolitre volumes only when printing is needed. That means nothing is wasted — and every drop is trackable.

The FX ONE’s built-in software lets you see exactly how much each message costs to print — whether it’s a date code, batch number, or full-size barcode. Even better, it lets you optimise your messages to stay within budget. Want to reduce ink usage by the potential to up to 80%?  Switch to outline fonts or adjust the ink density on the message — the FX ONE will deliver you savings instantly.

This level of transparency empowers manufacturers to:

While most coding companies avoid discussing cost per print, Foenix embraces it. In the secondary packaging sector — where large logos, barcodes and case-level markings are common — customers using the FX ONE report savings of 50–80% on their box printing costs.

In many real-world cases, those savings pay for the printer and ink within a single year. Compared to HP-based TIJ printers, which are inexpensive upfront but expensive to run, Foenix's FX ONE quickly becomes the more economical choice.

As Fabien Colette, CEO of Foenix Coding puts it: “The cost per print within a few months could pay for our printer AND ink for a year.”

If you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it — and until now, cost per print has been invisible to most manufacturers. The FX ONE changes that.

This is not just about reducing print costs — it’s about exposing them, controlling them, and building smarter production strategies around them.

So the next time you wonder, "What does it cost to code a box?" — the smart answer is: "Let’s ask Foenix."

Ready to discover your true cost per print? Book a free consultation for a demo and see what your savings could look like.