Kyocera releases the world’s fastest print head September 24, 2009 08:36 by John Sollars

Kyocera today announced that it has developed the world's fastest* inkjet printhead — the key component in inkjet printing equipment. Each nozzle in the new KJ4 Series printhead ejects ink at up to 60,000 dots per second (at 60kHz drive frequency); with 2,656 nozzles per head, the device is capable of printing approximately 150 million dots per second.

Kyocera's previous inkjet printhead offered the world's fastest print speed when it was introduced in 2008 - 150 meters per minute at 600×600dpi resolution, using a drive frequency of 30kHz. The newly developed printhead sets new records for high resolution, full-color inkjet printing, offering the world's fastest print speeds in any of three resolutions: 600×360dpi (330m/min. at 40kHz), 600×600dpi (200m/min at 40kHz), and 1200×1200dpi (150m/min at 60kHz).

Recent years have brought increasing demand for on-demand printing, which allows for a larger variety of printing in smaller order volumes to meet specialized customer needs in the commercial high-speed printing market. In this way, inkjet printing is garnering attention for its flexibility on a page-by-page basis which contributes to productivity, and for its cost performance.

The new technology enabling this development was achieved by enhancing the drive frequency with Kyocera's unique elemental technology; making the interior ink channels more compact, optimizing the nozzle configuration, and improving the water-repellent coating on the printhead nozzle surface to prevent clogging, thus ejecting the ink more accurately. In addition to speed, it provides the high resolution required in the commercial printing market, with a 50 percent improvement in ink-drop placement accuracy over Kyocera's previous model. And like the original, the new printhead maintains the world's broadest single-unit print width, at 4.25 inches - enabling convenient printhead arrangement. Collectively, these features reflect Kyocera's commitment to lead the digital on-demand market with continuous technological advancement.

Kyocera will display the new printhead at the Japan Graphic Arts Show 2009 from October 6 through 10 at the Tokyo Big Sight.