Xaar plc has
announced a collaboration with leading industrial printhead solution provider
Meteor Inkjet Ltd to produce an inkjet development kit and commercial drive
electronics set for the Xaar 1201 printhead. The specially developed ecosystem
from Meteor enables OEMs who use the Xaar 1201 to develop printers for the
graphics and textiles market to maximise the printhead performance.
In addition, the collaboration
means that OEMs can rely on a best-in- class solution from initial printhead
development right through to full commercialisation of their printer. This
shortens OEMs’ time-to- market as well as ensuring the best printhead performance
possible for their own customers.
“We
chose to work with Meteor Inkjet because its electronics – which are designed to
be power-efficient, compact and flexible – are the perfect way to get the
maximum performance from the Xaar 1201,” says Simon Kirk, Senior Product
Manager at Xaar.
“Whilst
the printhead is a key part of any print system, there are a number of components
that make up the printhead ecosystem, and these play a critical part in the
overall printhead performance. It’s therefore essential that we are able to
provide our customers not just with a superb printhead, but also with a high
quality suite of electronics and software which can be used in printhead evaluation
and commercial printer production. Meteor has delivered this, and together we
now offer our customers the complete printhead package.”
“We’re
delighted to have developed a printhead driver solution that will get the best out
of the Xaar 1201 for graphics and textiles,” comments Clive Ayling, Managing Director
at Meteor Inkjet Ltd. “We have worked on several Xaar printheads before, and
once again, by working closely with the Xaar team, we have produced a drive electronics
solution that will truly enhance the performance of the printhead for OEMs.”
The Xaar 1201 printhead,
a rising star in the textiles and graphics printing markets in Asia and Europe,
is a versatile and compact greyscale printhead. It prints one, two or four
colours, delivers a high level of quality and performance, and is capable of handling
aqueous, UV, hard-solvent and eco-solvent inks. Designed for easy integration
by printer manufacturers, the Xaar 1201 features 1280 nozzles that jet variable
drop sizes; these produce high quality graphics and textiles on a wide range of
substrates at an apparent resolution of up to 1440 dpi.
