Epson develops next generation Print Heads
Following on from Canon’s lead in utilising Semiconductor manufacturing techniques for their latest print heads, Epson have just announced their next-generation Micro Piezo print head as their future core technology and expects it to be a growth driver for the company in the coming years.
By utilising its existing semiconductor manufacturing expertise, Epson has engineered an inkjet print head capable of producing 360 dots per inch - which is the highest for a piezoelectric technology print head. This doubles the density of its current print heads.
This new design will result in much speedier printers, enabling them to design much smaller printers and expand the range of inkjet printing applications. You can read the full article on the technology of the print head here.
Epson’s current Piezo print head has a nozzle count of 180 per row, producing a print density of 180 dots per inch or dpi. The obvious way to increase print density and therefore speed would be to increase the number of print nozzles in each row. The current technology is engineered using machine tools and has reached its maximum density possible. So the researchers not only had to rethink the design of the print head, but also needed to find a different way to manufacture it - the answer is to be found in wafer Fab technology - photolithography.
Simply halving the size of each unit in order to double the number of nozzles would only result in the same print speed, so the researchers had to find a way to maintain the same droplet volume, even while shrinking each piezo unit by roughly half.
The solution lay in a complete makeover of the piezo element which controls ejection of the ink. The current piezo element is made up of 16 layers of material and measures about 1 millimeter in length with a layer thickness of 25 microns. By utilising the photolithographic techniques and applying them to a thin file of piezo material, Epson has created a microscopically small piezo element just 1 micron in thickness. This has enabled them to produce a piezo unit measuring almost half the effective area of the current unit so that they can double the number of nozzles on the print head, all the while maintaining the same size of ink droplet. This can be used either to accelerate print speed to to make smaller print heads for smaller printers that will deliver the same output as current models.
This new technology also allows the print head to be used for a range of inks, including dy and pigment types, solvent inks and ultraviolet cure inks used in industry.
Here at Stinkyink towers we are waiting with baited breath to see the fruits of their labours, in reduced costs and faster printers - maybe?
July 6th, 2007 at 11:21 am
[...] Epson Corporation announced recently that over the coming Autumn months they will be updating their entire range of printers and Multi-Function devices. At a recent conference in Spain, the printer giant announced that it is to roll out up to a dozen new devices which will benefit from their new Micro Piezo print head technology (which we discussed here). [...]
December 25th, 2007 at 10:19 pm
Exciting view about develops next generation Print Heads - Stinky Ink! Thoroughly enjoy your write ups!