Meteor's Jonathan Wilson discusses heterogeneous inkjet imaging and it's ability to capture new opportunities by combining different head types, fluid types and resolutions at InPrint Munich 2019.

1. Nov 2019JW
Heterogeneous Inkjet Imaging –
Inkjet flexibility

2. Be water, or some type of jetable fluid….
“You must be shapeless, formless, like water. When you pour water in
a cup, it becomes the cup. When you pour water in a bottle, it
becomes the bottle. When you pour water in a teapot, it becomes the
teapot. Water can drip and it can crash. Become like water my friend.”
Bruce Lee

3. Inkjet flexibility – heterogeneous systems
 Heterogeneity is the state of being diverse in character or content
 Inkjet has the flexibility to be more than a binary system
 Being adaptable to types of fluid that needed to be jetted
 Mixing resolutions
 Mixing drop volume/drop size
 What does this mean for new markets and new opportunities?
 What does this mean for systems builders?
 Why do we need this?

4. Adapting to change

5. Market challenges - label printing
 Label printing is adopting
inkjet
 The challenges
• Expectations of high resolution
1200 * 1200
• CMYK
• White
• All at high speed
• Jetting different drop volumes
at different viscosities in a
single pass.

6. Market challenges – surface decoration
 Haptic printing is adding tactile
surface texture to a visible image
underneath
 Woodgrain is a common image
 The challenges
• Visible image must have small non-
identifiable dots
• Haptic ‘image’ needs a non-volatile
ink to build height
• Jetting different drop volumes at
different viscosities in a single pass

7. Market challenges - ceramics
 Older 360dpi and 400dpi 4-8 colour ceramic tile machines abound,
but 600dpi imaging is better for wall tiles
 Machines are now being increased to 12 colours with additional print
bars
 No need for these 10-12 colour machines to remain homogenous
 Example of a heterogenous machine:
adding a Dimatix 600dpi SG600
print bar to an existing 360dpi Xaar
ceramic tile decoration machine

8. Greyscale heads – 600dpi
 For most graphic imaging for human view, the specification is:
• 600dpi
• 4-level greyscale
• <10pL sub drop volume
• Good ink colour (improved with Harlequin™)
• Visible banding (improved with NozzleFix™ and PrintFlat™)
• Ink misbehaviour on the media (improved with AIS™)
 Many head manufacturers now have a head that matches this spec, such
as:
• Epson S3200
• Konica Minolta KM1800i, KM600M
• Kyocera KJ4A, KJ4B
• Ricoh MH5xxx series “Gen5”
• Toshiba TEC CF3
• Xaar 2001

9. High resolution heads – 1200dpi
 For some graphic imaging, the specification rises to 1200dpi binary
• 1200dpi
• Binary with <5pL sub drop volume
• Good ink colour (improved with Harlequin™)
• No visible banding (improved with NozzleFix™ and PrintFlat™)
• No ink misbehaviour on the media (improved with AIS™)
 Just a few head manufacturers offer this spec, such as
• Xaar 1201
• Dimatix Samba
• Xerox W-series
 An intermediate spec can be achieved by interlacing 2 x 600 dpi heads

10. Price pressure
 Large particulates, or conglomerates of particulates have to be
expensively removed from inks to produce inks for small nozzles
 More nozzles are required if the nozzles are small and heads with
more nozzles are priced higher
 Always choose heads with the largest nozzle size that the colour
plane can use
• SG1024M (25pL), SG1024L (70pL), SG600 (33pL)
• KJ4C-0360 (15pL)
• RC1536M (13pL), RC1536L (25pL)
• KM1024aLHG-RC (15pL)

11. Heads for low resolution colour planes
 Some manufacturers have heads (often initially targeted at ceramic
tile decoration) that can offer large nozzles with large drops for
under printing (white ink) or overprinting (lacquer or haptics)
such as:
• Dimatix SG1024M (25pL), SG1024L (70pL), SG600 (33pL)
• Konica Minolta KM1024aLHG-RC (25pL)
• Kyocera KJ4C-0360 (15pL)
• Ricoh MH2xxx “Gen4”
• Seiko RC1536M (13pL), RC1536L (25pL)

12. An inkjet approach - label – heterogeneity
 Engineering a system that can
work with multiple print head
types
 Multiple resolutions
 For labels
• 360 DPI with high drop volume for
white recirculating
• 600 or 1200 DPI for CMYK non-
recirculating
 Synchronizing the data delivery
 Ripping and screening at two or
more resolutions
Meteor System
Architecture
Sub-System 1
600 dpi
Printhead Model X
Grayscale 2bpp
Sub-System 2
400 dpi
Printhead Model Y
Binary 1bpp
Single Pass Inkjet Press

13. An inkjet approach – heterogeneous systems
 Heterogeneous systems with white at a lower resolution are now
being launched

14. An inkjet approach – mixed chemistry – heterogeneity
 Engineering a system that can
work with multiple print head
types
 Multiple resolutions
 For mixed chemistry types
• Head type 1 – Fluid type 1
• Head type 2 – Fluid type 2
Sub-System 2
600 dpi
Printhead Model Y
Binary 1bpp
Sub-System 1
400 dpi
Printhead Model X
Grayscale 2bpp
Large Drop Volume
Single Pass or Scanning
Inkjet Press
Meteor System
Architecture

15. An inkjet approach – future complex systems
 Consider a complex
system with 5 different
print head types
 Multiple resolutions
• Multiple drop sizes
• Multiple firing frequencies
 For labels
• 360 DPI for W
• 600 DPI CMY
• 1200 DPI K
 Synchronizing the data
delivery
 Ripping and screening at
N resolutions
Meteor System Architecture
Sub-System 1
300 dpi
Head Model X
Grayscale
1bpp
Single Pass Inkjet Press
Sub-System 1
600 dpi
Head Model X
Grayscale
2bpp
Sub-System 1
1200 dpi
Head Model X
Grayscale
3bpp
Sub-System 1
400 dpi
Head Model X
Grayscale
2bpp
Sub-System 1
360 dpi
Head Model X
Grayscale
2bpp

16. Synchronizing
 Page printing requires that each print is triggered off a sensor (or a
repeat length in mm)
 Number of pixels in each colour plane differs depending on the
resolution of that colour plane
 Each plane is synchronised off the same page start signal,
transmitted via a daisy chain to each head driver
 Continuous printing (no gap) requires the number of pixels in each
colour plane to be the same exact multiple of the colour plane
resolution
 Otherwise one colour plane may move a few pixels further
downstream after each copy!

17. A RIP to handle rendering of colour planes separately
eLab Pro can separately rip and screen colour planes (separations) at
different resolutions and screen and pass to heads of different types

18. Inkjet flexibility – heterogeneous systems
 Heterogeneity gives greater flexibility to the adoption of Inkjet
 Being adaptable to types of fluid that need to be jetted
 Mixing resolutions
 Mixing drop volume/drop size
 Mixing chemistry within a single system
 Blending new and old head types to maximize existing system potential
 Expanding inkjet into more industrial applications

19. Questions