Digital imaging technology is continuing its advancement in the industry with new technologies. The development and manufacture of new print heads using mechanical electrical manufacturing systems (MEMS) as well as other automated processes have enabled significant cost reductions per nozzle and improved precision for piezo inkjet (PIJ) print systems. This in turn has allowed manufacturers to produce wider arrays of heads while using less of them. Speed, accuracy and scalability with inkjet also are on the rise.
Recent trends in the marketplace are focusing on single-pass, roll-to-roll and roll-to-sheet inkjet print systems such as those that are using either UV-cured or water-based ink sets. New PIJ print heads such as those that combine laminated carbon with silicon MEMS fabrication to create a new type of hybrid, or those developed for 1200 dpi single-pass printing, but that also can be used for scanning head applications, are also moving forward in the marketplace. Inkjet will now start to supplant toner based printing equipment for narrow format transactional printing.
Wider arrays of heads currently being used for web-based transactional printing will begin to migrate to fixed- or traversing-head arrays for flatbed or wide-format roll-to-roll printing devices. When these newer head designs are ramped up in the production process, new wide-format devices utilizing single-pass inkjet technology in wider formats than are currently being employed will begin to appear on the horizon. This progression, together with different ink formulations that should become available (UV and Latex variants), will lead to greater product diversity for graphics producers.
Other industry advancements include:
HP aqueous-based synthetic latex inks and wide-format printers utilizing a version of its Scalable Print Technology to print them
A new series of liquid-toner electro-photographic presses
Single-pass thermal inkjet web presses
Continuous inkjet (CIJ) technology printing full color output at 180 m/min and a new heat-driven CIJ print head.
High speed UV inkjet flatbeds using a fixed array of print heads with a print bed that moves.
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