The Xplor View - July 2008 - (Page 9)

Inkjet technologies moving forward The recent drupa highlighted the fact that inkjet technology is moving forward at a substantial pace and that the manufacturers of inkjet printers and presses are making good use of this technology to bring new products to market. What was interesting at drupa was that it was not just one inkjet technology that was moving forward but all of the technologies. By this I mean new developments in continuous inkjet (CIJ), in dropon-demand (DOD) piezo and thermal inkjet, and in other technologies of DOD thermal and piezo inkjet using new types of inks such as Latex and gel inks. The following article summarises some of these developments and what they may mean for the future of inkjet developments. for high-quality colour output. This colour technology is not available yet and we shall have to wait until at least 2010 before Kodak brings it to market in a 24-inch wide press. It does, however, show the potential of this new form of CIJ in allowing high-speed quality presses to be built. printhead array in the Fujifilm JetPress 720. This uses the new SAMBA inkjet technology to build a 1,200 dpi resolution greyscale printhead. This is a substantial leap forward in resolution and small drop size printing for piezo DOD inkjet. The fact it is also substantially manufactured using MEMS technology out of silicon shows real potential for further developments of this head. Panasonic The Panasonic wide format print array was seen in at least two different systems—the Kodak Versamark VL2000 and the Impika presses. The Panasonic printhead array has two ink channels so it can print in two colors at 600 dpi at 75 meters/minute or in one color at 150 meters/minute. The interesting fact in this is to look at the Kodak Versamark VL2000, Kodak’s first DOD inkjet press, and inside you can see that it has two printhead arrays. This means it is printing at 75 meters/minute. There is, however, space for a second set of two printheads so you can envisage that there will be both an upgrade to the VL2000 and perhaps a second model that allows printing in full color at 150 meters/minute. This would be the same speed as the current Kodak Versamark VX5000 Plus but the print is in a higher quality. Kyocera Kyocera’s new KJ4 Series printhead which claims to be the fastest DOD printhead available was being shown on both the Océ JetStream family and the Miyakoshi MJP600 presses. These are basically the same presses manufactured by Miyakoshi but the control systems and drive electronics are Océ development for the JetStream presses. These heads are the widest piezo DOD heads available at a width of 4.25 inches and they are built up into wide format arrays, like other modern printheads. They have a running speed at 600x600 dpi of 150 meters/minute but if the resolution is reduced to 600x480 dpi, the speed increases to 200 meters/minute. This option is being offered with the Océ JetStream 3000 model. The printheads can also print slower and DOD piezo and thermal inkjet Most activity in inkjet at drupa, however, was in DOD technology. This could be described as the battle of the printhead suppliers. Many of the new printers and presses shown at drupa were using relatively new DOD printhead developments. Printheads are not all the same. Some are only suited for printing relatively low viscosity aqueous inks for highest speed applications, whereas others can jet more viscous inks suitable for printing on a wide range of substrates. The following were some of the interesting inkjet developments on show and some of the products that used them. Xaar In many ways Xaar is seen as the most successful of the printhead suppliers in looking at the number of new products shown using their latest Xaar 1001 printhead. This head, designed to be built into wide format print arrays, was seen in a number of interesting products printing a wide variety of different inks. I have already written about many of these but I would highlight the FFEI Emblaze digital coater, the Xennia X-treme 9000 wide format single pass printer for printing ceramic tiles and other decorative products, and label printers from FFEI, Beijing Founder, Xennia, and EFI Jetrion. Dimatix Dimatix, or Spectra as they are better known, did not have as many new products with its latest generation printheads. We saw the first implementation of the M-Series heads in the entry-level flatbed UV curable ink printer from Raster Printers producing excellent quality. The highlight from Dimatix was the new wide format Continuous inkjet While there are a number of suppliers of CIJ technology only one, Kodak, really uses this technology for digital colour printing applications. Up to now Kodak has been using a technology originally developed in the 1970s and substantially enhanced since that time. This technology of employing 300 dpi, 9-inch wide printheads with aqueous inks is used in the Kodak Versamark 3000 and 5000 families of presses for both monochrome and colour printing. The same technology in narrower width heads is used for imprinting applications in many industries. The key development at drupa was the introduction of the STREAM CIJ printheads. These are a totally new technology that allows higher speeds, better colour quality, and a wider range of inks to be used. The heads were shown imprinting in monochrome on the Muller Martini continuous feed offset press on the stand demonstrating just how fast this technology of CIJ printing could print. The main showing, however, was the STREAM Concept Press illustrating the potential 9 Issue 5 July 2008 The VIEW Journal Xplor European Edition

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of The Xplor View - July 2008

The Xplor View - July 2008 Contents Cover Story: Drupa 2008: The Highlights Review New Technology: Inkjet Technologies Moving Forward New Technology: QR Codes: Leading Edge but not Bleeding Edge A Fresh Look at Electronic Document Delivery Management: Growing Your Business Through Tendering The Experts Versus the Amateurs News: Xplor UK & Ireland Supports Total Print! Expo� Part Two: The Latest Developments in Knowledge Management Xplor Europe News: Short News Items for the Xplor UK Programme and Europe News

The Xplor View - July 2008

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