This news release is intended for media purposes, and is current of the date of publication. Information is subject to change without notice.

October 6, 2015

Kyocera Corporation (President: Goro Yamaguchi) today announced that it has developed a new 150 dot-per-inch (dpi) inkjet printhead - a key component for inkjet printers - which enables simultaneous four-color 'CMYK' printing from a single printhead. The Kyocera KJ4B-0150 printhead offers 150dpi resolution for each color (600dpi total), with a printing speed of 76.2 meters per minute. Available in January 2016, it will be used in industrial printing equipment on media ranging from textiles to signage and even large-scale advertising billboards.

Kyocera will exhibit the new product at the CEATEC JAPAN 2015 tradeshow, October 7-10, 2015, in the Makuhari Messe International Convention Complex (Chiba Pref., Japan).


Main features
1. Simultaneous four-color printing from a single printhead
This product significantly reduces the number of printheads required in industrial printing equipment (by 75 percent) by enabling simultaneous four-color printing from a single printhead. Through this key advantage, and by reducing the need for supplemental componentry, it facilitates lighter and smaller equipment.
2. One of the world's widest printheads: simplifies equipment design and maintenance
Featuring one of the world's widest*1 effective print widths (112mm), the KJ4B-0150 further reduces the number of printheads required, minimizing design complexity even for ultra-wide-format equipment. Additionally, Kyocera's proprietary printhead technology simplifies both equipment assembly and maintenance, including micron-level alignment, ink-discharge and wiring.
3. High-quality, high-speed printing
Kyocera's KJ4B-0150 printhead delivers high-quality, high-speed printing through ultra-high-precision ink discharge made possible by Kyocera's proprietary technologies in fluid-channel structure design and piezo-actuator drive control. The result is significantly greater productivity, with four-color digital print speeds up to 76.2 meters per minute at 150dpi resolution.

Development Background

The industrial printing market is experiencing unprecedented demand for digital technologies to support smaller print runs, shorter turnaround times, inventory reduction and variable-data printing*2. Especially in the fashion apparel industry, these demands are rapidly increasing with the growing trend of fast fashion.

The conventional technology for industrial printing requires costly printing plates to be created for each color printed. This results in high fixed-setup costs that make short print runs economically unfeasible. It also leads to high inventory management expenses, as printed materials and plates require storage. In contrast, digital inkjet printing eliminates the printing plate and allows for the immediate printing of only the required amount of design data, contributing not only to increased productivity and cost reduction, but also a reduction in environmental burden, as plate-washing waste is not generated in the production process.

Kyocera already mass-produces a 300dpi two-color inkjet printhead, as well as 600dpi and 1200dpi monochrome variants, that offer world-class levels of high-resolution print speeds. By launching a new 150dpi printhead with simultaneous four-color capability, Kyocera addresses a multitude of market demands for high-speed, high-resolution printing; equipment downsizing; cost reduction; and reduced environmental impact, thus expanding the possibilities of the digital printing industry.

*1: Based on research by Kyocera (as of October 6, 2015)
*2 Variable-data printing (VDP): A printing method by which individually unique data (e.g. personalized information) is printed on separate sheets without stopping or slowing the printing process.

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