KYOCERA CORPORATION
Available in
Development Background
Digital printing offers the advantage of immediate, customizable printing in any quantity while reducing environmental impact by eliminating the liquid waste that occurs in plate-cleaning processes. As a result, the demand for digital printing, including inkjet printing, is rapidly expanding from traditional paper media into new applications such as textiles, food-grade packaging, and building materials.
In recent years, ink formulations have been diversified to increase productivity and accommodate a wider range of applications. Consequently, demand is rising for printheads that can handle a wider variety of inks at higher speeds while offering better print resolutions and enhanced durability. Furthermore, realizing stable jetting with maximum drop volume is also an important factor for printing, mainly in textile and corrugated board applications.
The robust design of Kyocera's printhead technology allows stable, continuous printing to enhance productivity in industrial printing operations. As a result, Kyocera will lead the digitization of the printing industry by reducing the workload of operators and improving labor efficiency.
Features
Ink recirculation at the nozzle allows compatibility with a wider variety of inks, including fast-drying inks, over a wider range of applications.
Kyocera's unique technology recirculates ink around the nozzle, which prevents nozzle drying, while promoting temperature uniformity and inhibiting ink sedimentation. These features allow stable printing with various kinds of inks, including fast-drying formulations, while reducing routine maintenance, such as printhead cleaning when rebooting a printer. This new printhead also incorporates a water cooling system3 as a standard feature, enhancing stability in continuous, high-speed, high-quality printing.
Higher productivity through high driving frequency and greater maximum drop volume.
By optimizing the ink-flow-channel design and printhead structure, the maximum drop volume of ink ejected from nozzles has been increased to 14 pL, about 17% greater than the previous model at a driving frequency of 40 kHz, with improved jetting stability. With a wide effective printing width of 108.3mm, Kyocera's printhead achieves high precision and industry-leading productivity1.
High print quality through Kyocera's unique monolithic piezo actuator2.
Kyocera has developed a large monolithic piezoelectric actuator, using proprietary material design technology for dense polycrystalline ceramic actuators, and manufacturing technology for thin piezoelectric ceramic substrates. Kyocera has now optimized and adopted the technology for this printhead (width: 116mm x depth: 21mm x thickness: 0.04mm). By using a large monolithic piezoelectric actuator, Kyocera has achieved uniform image quality within the printhead and higher print quality.
High durability achieved through a simple and robust flow-channel structure with stainless steel lamination.
Adopting a monolithic piezoelectric actuator increases design flexibility and results in a simple and robust structure. This provides improved strength and structural stability for enhanced durability.
Through its advanced technologies, Kyocera will expand the possibilities of digital printing and contribute to the sustainability of the global printing industry.
(C) 2024 Electronic News Publishing, source
