Seiko’s new RCE2560 printhead at drupa

Seiko launched its new 600 dpi inkjet printhead at drupa for water-based inks on the Individuals and Expertise stand at drupa24. The long-awaited printhead is the upgraded model of the corporate’s current 360 dpi RC1536 however with a better nozzle density, making attainable sooner speeds for water-based inks that can permit Seiko to focus on new markets together with packaging and textiles.

Ali Eranpurwala, head of inkjet printhead gross sales at Seiko Devices Europe, explains the brand new Seiko printhead, “We’ve got taken the RC1536 printhead that we have already got with full nozzle stage recirculation, and we’ve diminished the dimensions of the channels to pack in additional nozzles to get 600 dpi. So every row, as a substitute of getting 90 dpi now, has 150 dpi within the RCE2560. In whole, there are 4 nozzle rows, which mix to type 600 dpi.”

The RCE2560 has a print width of 108.3 mm with 2560 nozzles. The pinnacle can generate drop sizes from 9 to 30 picolitres with a jetting frequency of 40kHz. This could result in a really aggressive print velocity of 100 meters per minute at 600 dpi. It has a jetting velocity of seven mps at a throw distance of three mm. It will possibly print each horizontally and vertically. As well as, the place the RC1536 solely supported a single channel, the brand new head has two channels that means that two colours could be jetted at 300 dpi every.

The opposite large change is that Seiko has upgraded the electronics throughout the printhead, which has allowed it to introduce a brand new Remoted channel mode. Seiko began its printhead enterprise by licensing Xaar’s shared wall shear mode know-how, as did Konica Minolta and Toshiba Tec. The shared wall means that there’s a single wall between adjoining ink chambers. Electrodes on both facet of those partitions allowed the partitions to be flexed in both course to drive the ink out of the ink chamber and thru the nozzle in a sheared mode. Beforehand, Seiko relied on the waveform to use a optimistic cost to the electrodes to push the partitions in a single course.

For these inks that don’t conduct currents, akin to oil-based or UV inks, it was attainable to set off the electrodes on the within wall in addition to the outer wall, which allowed the partitions to be flexed in each instructions. Nonetheless, as Eranpurwala explains, “With water-based inks, we couldn’t apply any present on the inside electrodes as a result of they’d be conducting, solely on the outer electrode.” This meant that the shared partitions between the ink chambers might solely be flexed in a single course, which restricted the efficiency with aqueous inks.

Eranpurwala continues, “However the brand new electronics permit us to make use of new waveforms, nonetheless simply on the outer facet however we will do that in each a optimistic and destructive method, flexing that wall in each instructions.” The web result’s that this head is significantly better suited to water-based inks than earlier Seiko printheads. “This permits us to acquire excessive directional accuracy as a result of we will switch extra vitality to the drops, as we will go outwards and inwards with our piezos.”

Eranpurwala explains a number of the challenges of water-based inks, “We come from the ceramics market the place we get a number of stress from the business to print from an additional distance, and to do this we have to switch a number of vitality to the drops in order that implies that the motion of the piezo in each instructions is important. Once we moved to the water-based inks, we misplaced that squeeze movement as a result of we couldn’t set off the electrodes on the within of the channels. Now we’re regaining this functionality by utilizing the optimistic and destructive pulse on the electrodes that aren’t within the channel of ink.”

OEMs are free to design their waveforms however Eranpurwala notes, “It’s open however we inform them that it isn’t a straightforward factor to take action if they permit us to do it then it’s higher. We don’t put a lock on it so folks can change it in the event that they need to however we will’t guarantee the printhead after that because it’s troublesome for us to know what they’ve accomplished with the waveform. He provides, “A few of the ink producers want to make their very own waveform they usually hold it to their ink so we try this with them.”

He says that Seiko has some expertise in letting clients work their waveform having already opened it up for the RC1536 head, noting, “The RC1536 is far simpler for waveform as a result of there isn’t a destructive, we’ve solely the optimistic actions however now that we’ve the optimistic and destructive we, ourselves, don’t understand how troublesome it will likely be. So we don’t understand how possible it will likely be for anybody to alter the waveform.”

In any other case, the basic design stays the identical, together with the piezo and the electrode deposition course of. Apart from water-based inks, the RCE2560 will even jet UV-curable, oil, and solvent-based inks. As well as, it should deal with a variety of fluid viscosity, from 5 to 20cP, and presumably past this. Ryoichiro Yamashita, technical help supervisor for Seiko Devices Europe, says that Seiko doesn’t have any expertise above 20cP so for now the vary is listed as 5-20cP.

There isn’t any heating or temperature management on the pinnacle. Yamashita says that its not wanted, noting, “It’s troublesome to deal with heating the ink solely on the printhead as a result of we’ve a really excessive stream price so it’s higher to regulate the temperature by the ink system.”

Eranpurwala says, “We’ve got an excellent relationship with clients which relies on the technical help that we give them. Having that sturdy presence of technical employees right here in Europe, and the nozzle stage recirculation, the 600dpi and the through-flow know-how with this excessive viscosity vary, all this stuff are quantifiable advantages however I feel the core profit remains to be the way in which we do enterprise, which individuals now count on from us.”

Seiko has additionally labored with each Meteor Inkjet and the small German firm Aewa who’ve each developed drive electronics to help the RCE2560.

Initially, Seiko will concentrate on the corrugated market, although Ali Eranpurwala provides, “However textiles can be one thing that we’re .” He explains, “We at the moment are approaching shoppers from all completely different markets, like packaging, and we’ve glass printing, even 3D printing and a few individuals are asking us for direct-to-shape. So now we’ve to decide on a number of and begin working with them as a result of we will’t help everybody on the identical time.”

The primary samples of the brand new head must be accessible later this summer time, round August, and Seiko will choose some beta clients then. Eranpurwala provides, “We count on to enter full manufacturing by the tip of this 12 months.”