KKyocera Corporation (President: Tetsuo Kuba) today announced that it has developed a new 300 dots-per-inch (dpi) inkjet printhead — a key component for commercial inkjet printers — which enables simultaneous two-color printing with just one printhead. With resolution of 300dpi, it offers the world's fastest printing speed*1 of 152m/min. Samples of the new product will be available within the year.
Kyocera's 300dpi two-color inkjet printhead
(water-based ink type shown)
Overview
Model
300dpi two-color inkjet printhead
Dimensions (W×D×H)
200×36×68.5(mm)
Print speed
152m/min
(simultaneous two-color printing at 300dpi)
Resolution
300dpi
Effective print width
112mm
Ink compatibility
UV-curable / water-based
Development facility
Kagoshima Kokubu Plant, Japan
The new product achieves simultaneous two-color printing with just one printhead. This not only effectively halves the number of printheads required in the printer, but also reduces the number of parts required for wiring, contributing to equipment downsizing. In addition, it has achieved an effective print width of 112mm, the world's widest*2 for this type of printhead. Reducing the number of printheads used, even when wide-width printing is required, contributes to simpler equipment design and easier assembly.
The 300dpi model's nozzle configuration prevents the mixing of inks at the point of contact with the printed material — a potential problem when printing two colors simultaneously from the same printhead — ensuring that the new two-color printhead delivers quality printed images. Furthermore, the printhead has achieved the world's fastest print speed of 152m/min for a 300dpi printhead with simultaneous two-color printing, contributing to increased productivity through high-speed printing.
Number of printheads used with conventional one-color printhead
Reduced number of printheads needed with two-color printhead
Development Background
In commercial printing, there is an increasing need for digital (or on-demand) printing to accommodate and meet a wide variety of requirements such as smaller lot sizes, shorter delivery times, inventory reduction and variable printing*3 of materials.
Off-set (or analog) printing, which is the mainstream method of current commercial printing, requires the creation of multiple plates for each project. This generates and increases costs, as it requires not only time and effort to print, but also inventory management and storage space for the plates. On the other hand, digital printing, including inkjet systems, allows for the immediate printing of only the required amount of design data. This means that there is no need to create or manage plates, contributing not only to increased productivity and cost reduction, but also a reduction in environmental burden, as plate-washing waste can be eliminated from the process.
To date, Kyocera has mass-produced 600dpi*4 and developed 1200dpi*5 inkjet printheads that achieve the world's fastest high-resolution print speed. By launching a new 300dpi printhead with the world's fastest speed and simultaneous two-color printing feature, Kyocera is responding to the needs of a wide variety of customers, including high-speed, high-resolution printing, equipment downsizing, cost reduction and reducing environmental burden to expand the possibilities of the digital printing industry.
Features
1. Enabling simultaneous two-color printing with one printhead, contributing to simpler design and easier assembly
This product reduces not only the number of printheads required in a printer by enabling simultaneous two-color printing with one printhead, but also reduces the total number of parts such as wiring, contributing to equipment downsizing. In addition, the world's widest effective print width of 112m means that fewer printheads are needed, facilitating simpler equipment design even when wide-width printing is required. Furthermore, during equipment assembly and when parts need replacing, this printhead contributes to reducing the burden of a wide range of adjustments such as micron-level printhead alignment, ink discharge and wiring.
The printhead achieves simultaneous two-color printing with high print quality made possible through Kyocera's proprietary high-precision ink discharge control and ink flow channel structure design technology.
2. Achieving high print quality and the world's fastest print speed with a newly developed printhead
By utilizing Kyocera's ink flow channel structure design techniques and piezo actuator drive control technology, this product has achieved the world's fastest print speed of 152m/min for a printhead with simultaneous two-color printing at 300dpi resolution. This feature enables higher digital print speeds, contributing to increased productivity.
*1 The world's fastest speed for a two-color simultaneous single-pass inkjet printhead at a print resolution of 300dpi (based on research by Kyocera; as of July 1, 2012).
*2 Among piezo electric inkjet printheads with 300dpi or higher (based on research by Kyocera; as of July 1, 2012).
*3 Variable printing: A printing method by which individually unique data (e.g. personalized information) is printed on separate sheets
*4 The world's fastest print speed for single-pass inkjet printheads with a printing resolution of 600dpi x 600dpi, a printing width of 4.25 inches and one head in feed direction (based on research by Kyocera; as of July 1, 2012).
*5 The world's fastest print speed for single-pass inkjet printheads with a printing resolution of 1200dpi x 1200dpi, a printing width of 108 inches and one head in feed direction (based on research by Kyocera; as of July 1, 2012).
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