Yogurt probably isn’t the first thing that comes to mind when you think of emerging inkjet technologies, but if Fujifilm/Dimatix has its way, perhaps the two concepts won’t seem unrelated much longer. Dimatix, acquired by Fujifilm in 2006, is the manufacturer of Spectra inkjet heads and is excited to expand the possibilities of inkjet beyond conventional graphics. That said, my recent trip to Dimatix’s offices in New Hampshire also offered a lot of ideas for more conventional applications of digital inkjet technology.
Inkjet image quality is still lower than that of offset presses, but the flexibility of inkjet technology is its real selling feature. For example, since the print heads never actually touch the substrate with inkjet, substrate possibilities are much more numerous than for offset.
And regardless of the substrate, ink is not the only thing you can extrude with jetting technology. John C. Batterton, President and CEO of Dimatix, says he thinks of inkjet as only a subcategory of “materials deposition technology.” If you can jet ink, why not food dyes? If food dyes, why not food flavourings? If food flavourings, why not actual foods? Printing flavoured cartoon pictures onto yogurt, printing computer circuits onto flexible substrates, and “printing” pharmaceuticals are just a few of the applications when you “think outside the ink” with regards to jetting technology.
But as neat as such applications seem, most of them are some time away from trickling down to small and medium–sized print shops just looking for some value added for their customers. Here, too, inkjet technologies offer benefits, although they are not without their disadvantages as well.
For applications where speed or flexibility, rather than image quality, is the primary concern, inkjet is well–positioned to expand in coming years and months. Look out for more hybrid digital/offset presses, as well as digital add–ons to existing offset systems. Combining the flexibility of digital for direct marketing, and other such variable data possibilities, with the quality and proven performance of offset could be a winning strategy for small and medium–sized shops looking to stay competitive and offer value–added services to their target market. The disadvantage, of course, is that combining offset and digital is rarely as easy as simply snapping on an inkjet component at the end of your offset press. While the possibilities for integrating the two methods have improved in recent years, there are still many ways to enhance digital/offset integration.
For printers focusing on the wide–format market, there are also some possible improvements on the horizon. Rather than the traditional scanning heads of inkjet printers, have you thought about a single–pass arrangement of inkjet arrays? An array can be custom–built to your needs, and involves either a giant head the width of your substrate or, more frequently, several smaller heads bundled or linked together to give coverage over the width of your media.
These inkjet arrays are an obvious plus in terms of efficiency, as your printing speed will be substantially increased. Also, arrays are often designed with built–in redundancy, so that one jet malfunctioning or clogging won’t result in unacceptable image imperfections.
Arrays’ benefits are also their main disadvantage. The high volume of ink, coupled with higher efficiencies, means problems at the drying or curing stage. Existing UV lamps may not be able to quickly or completely cure the volume of ink extruded, and aqueous inks will take much longer to dry. If you’re thinking about switching to an inkjet array, make sure that your whole system will be able to handle the new process—otherwise, you’re just creating a new bottleneck to replace the former scanning inkjet bottleneck.
On a related note, Dimatix’s VersaDrop jetting technology, which allows users to adjust drop sizes on the fly, could nicely augment an inkjet array. Using smaller drops for high–contrast areas and larger drops in areas needing deep, rich colour is an example of how variable drop sizes could improve image quality. Variable drop sizes could also mitigate the problems of high ink volumes in single–pass technology.
The presence of Spectra heads in so many different inkjet printers means that they will certainly benefit from the current and coming market expansion. And while the cutting–edge possibilities of materials deposition may not be relevant to most mid–size Canadian companies, developments in arrays, drop size, and single pass may soon find their way to a print shop near you.
Catherine M.A. Wiebe
catherine@graphicartsmag.com
