SmalTec International, the manufacturer of leading micro machining equipment for the small technology industry, has ongoing relationships and development projects with several Industrial Inkjet manufacturers. The Industrial Inkjet Industry consists of many system manufacturers. One can search the internet and quickly identify several key players such as Xennia, Domino, Toshiba, Markem-Imaje, FUJIFILM Dimatix, Trident: An ITW Company, Komax Wire, Videojet, Xaar and many more. With a potential market size of $7.4 Billion by 2017, according to some industry reports, there is a lot of competition and room for growth.
The manufacturers within this industry focus on two basic technologies to create an ink droplet. One of these technologies is Continuous Inkjet (CIJ), where a pressure fed stream of constant ink droplets is steered electrostatically to find its target. Unused droplets get captured and recycled. This process is used in industrial Coding/Marking for high speed bottling lines (date coding) and mass-mail personalisation. The other more dominant technology is Drop on Demand (DOD),ink droplets are pulsed out of chambers by using Thermal or Electrostatic (piezo actuated) processes. Drop on demand print heads are usually made by ceramic forming and silicon chip photolithographic processes. DOD technology is used for high density colour graphics printing. Applications of this technology include textile and ceramic colouring as well as wide format printers capable of printing billboards.
There are several key aspects of this technology that make a successful and consistent droplet: Controls, Actuators, Ink chemistry, and nozzle, etc. SmalTec manufactures equipment to make micro sized features and holes. This technology is ideal for making a volume of highly repetitive holes. This is important to performance of an Inkjet nozzle. "SmalTec has developed a process that can improve the production time of small hole creation by 10x, compared to currently available technology," stated Mr. Jerry Mraz, General Manager of SmalTec. The ability to create 'perfect' holes very quickly, greatly improves the cost and performance of the Inkjet.
"We continue to upgrade our equipment, like the model EM203, and processes to be able to meet the demand of the micro hole industry," stated Mraz. "The ability to control our spark size, and frequency of 5ns, as well as the feedback of a given spark event are critical for the success of this process"
The Inkjet industry manufactures a variety of sizes of micro holes, ranging from 30-65 microns, as well as the quantity of holes on a specific device. There are designs with single holes as well as a popular number of 256 individual jets. The technology is being advanced and now includes heads of 512 and 1,024 holes, with 2,048 and beyond being investigated. One leading manufacturer can create droplets with volumes of 2 Pico liters and can dispense them at 100 kHz. SmalTec machines' ability to create many small holes effectively will be a key for these new advancements. The R&D cycle for new product development can be as long as 8 years. "The Inkjet manufactures demand better quality holes with shorter manufacturing cycles and we will continue to improve our technology to be even more productive and effective," continued Jerry Mraz. "We are currently developing new spark capability and equipment to go beyond today's efficiencies."
The Industrial Inkjet industry will continue a strong growth in coming years as these technologies find new applications and uses. Several future applications for high frequency droplet formation will include printing electrical circuits, biomedical, 3D printing, decoration and texturing of surfaces as well as aroma jetting for food flavouring and fragrances. Many applications remain unexplored providing for additional growth opportunities.