Kyocera Corporation has announced that it has developed the world’s fastest inkjet printhead.
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-colour 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).
The new technology enabling this development was achieved by enhancing the drive frequency with Kyocera’s elemental technology; making the interior ink channels more compact, optimising 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.
