Digital BW, The Print

On 04/05/2013 05:24 PM, Paul wrote:
> For those (like me) who would appreciate a wide format 1.5 pl printer,
> this article indicates we may have one available soon. See
> http://manilastandardtoday.com/2013/02/13/epson-unveils-new-line-of-commercial-industrial-printers/
>
> On the curious side, Epson has also come out with a new minilab printer
> that uses new "UltraChrome D6" *dyes*! Whether these dyes are the same
> as its Claria & Noritsu dyes is, of course, an interesting question. Why
> Epson would use its pigment trade name on this is also of interest.
> There are no fade test results relating to the UC dyes, but Epson is
> throwing out the term "archival" in some of its literature. However,
> Claria in dark storage has a Wilhelm rating of about 200 years, which by
> older standard would be considered "archival" (whatever that means).
>
> Paul
> www.PaulRoark.com

Paul, that article is confusing.

The dry minilab model most likely has similar technology to the Noritsu 
and Fuji dry minilabs with Epson parts. A page wide inkjet print head 
that can squirt 5 droplet sizes and the smallest droplet being 1.5 
picoliter. Only the media moves. The Epson model is CcMmYK, Noritsu/Fuji 
have 4 and 5 channel models if I recall it correctly.

The wider sign models use a head similar to the existing wide formats 
and will print a minimum 3.5 picoliter droplet using (eco)solvent ink. I 
do not expect a wide format with 1.5 picoliter droplets if they can not 
solve the speed issue. Page wide heads for wide formats exist in the 
industrial web/sheet printing machines that are in competition with 
offset etc printing technology. Not likely to be of any interest to us 
but for photo books that will one day be produced on machines like that 
instead of Indigos. Right now the droplet size will be larger than 1.5 
picoliter too. Epson, HP, Canon (Oc\ufffd), Ricoh and some other inkjet head 
manufacturers are involved.

Kia Silverbrook's Memjet technology has 22cm wide inkjet thermal heads 
that can squirt as small as 1 or 1.5 picoliter droplets. Dye ink only so 
far. Lenovo and some other companies have made office printers based on 
those heads. They are used in the label printing industry too and 
possibly with two heads next to one another in wider models. There is a 
co\ufffdperation between Oc\ufffd (Canon now) and Silverfast Memjet that delivered 
a wide format, the Velocity, first seen on the Drupa 2012.
http://www7.oce.com/velocity/en/

The new HP Officejet Pro + series have page wide heads too but can 
squirt pigment inks. 6 picoliter droplets though. Similar $600+ prices 
like the Memjet models. HP uses wider assemblies of similar heads on 
their web inkjet printing machines and the abandoned dry minilab HP model.

Your quoted article suggests that Epson could become the world leader in 
printing technology. They are actually way behind in the total printing 
market compared to HP, Canon, Fuji. It is different in some market 
segments like photo printing.

-- 
Met vriendelijke groet, Ernst Dinkla

http://www.pigment-print.com/spectralplots/spectrumviz_1.htm
December 2012: 500+ inkjet media paper white spectral plots.