Fujifilm’s Core Technologies Continue To Drive The Commercial Print Market As It Transitions From Analog To Digital
Fujifilm has accumulated and developed key inkjet printing technologies over the last twenty years to allow it to lead in many markets as they transition from analogue to digital printing.
The world of media and communication has been transformed by the development and commercialisation of digital technologies.
Printing is no exception, with digitisation beginning in small format home and business applications, and increasingly becoming more mainstream in the sign & display and commercial print markets.
The potential for inkjet technologies to continue to transform not only these markets, but the burgeoning worlds of industrial and packaging printing, is huge.
Driving this progress is the development of core technologies and the integration of these components into print engines that machinery manufacturers can design into printing equipment.
Fujifilm has acquired and developed industry-leading inkjet technologies that puts it at the forefront of these developments.
The company’s enormous resource of intellectual property, technology expertise and know-how is now being used to develop new innovative inkjet solutions for a wide range of applications, including packaging and industrial.
“Fujifilm Inkjet Technology” describes the company’s world-leading capability in printheads, inks, image optimisation and integration that will be at the heart of the inkjet printing solutions of the future.
Printheads
A core component of a state-of-the-art inkjet system is the printhead and Fujifilm has outstanding capabilities in this area.
Fujifilm Dimatix is the world’s leading supplier of piezoelectric drop-on-demand inkjet printheads and is driving a revolution in inkjet technology to support a new generation of products used for print production.
Thanks to heavy investment, Fujifilm has been awarded many patents and has developed multiple generations of best-in-class, drop-on-demand inkjet printheads.
Fujifilm’s class-leading printheads employ a range of proprietary technologies, with the design and construction of a printhead determining a number of key properties including spatial resolution, print speed and ink deposition.
Full Silicon MEMS (silicon micro-electro-mechanical systems), VersaDrop™ and RediJet™ technologies provide high duty cycles and long service life enabling OEMs and systems integrators to design the most advanced systems that are fast, reliable and economical.
Full Silicon MEMS manufacturing allows for the design of smaller and faster jets with a flatter frequency response. Smaller jets means tighter packing densities with unparalleled straightness.
RediJet™ jetting technology encompasses unique nozzle plate design, special conformal and non-wetting surface coatings, continuous ink recirculation at the nozzle and waveforms tailored to specific fluids.
UV Ink
Fujifilm’s role in the development of UV inks began in 2005, with the acquisition of Sericol Limited, a company that had pioneered the development of screen printing inks since 1951.
Now called Fujifilm Speciality Ink Systems, the company built on this screen printing heritage and expertise, launching the first UV-cured screen inks in 1978, and pioneering the development of UV wide-format inkjet ink technology, which resulted in the commercialisation of the very first UV digital inks in 1999.
Since this date, Fujifilm has continued to pioneer developments and is now the number one global patent holder in UV inkjet ink.
Aqueous Ink
Fujifilm is one of the few companies with significant R&D and manufacturing capabilities in both aqueous and UV inks, ideal for applications using inkjet digital printing.
In terms of aqueous, Fujifilm Imaging Colorants is a world leader in aqueous ink R&D and manufacturing, having launched the first generation of high purity inkjet colorants in 1985, and has been supported more recently by the establishment of a significant R&D capability at Fujifilm’s Advanced Marking Research Laboratories in Japan.
Thanks to the construction of the world’s largest digital aqueous ink manufacturing facility in the USA, Fujifilm’s aqueous ink capability has grown to be the largest in the world.
Image Optimisation
The other critical part in the development of a high-quality inkjet print engine is image optimisation.
Here, Fujifilm has a range of technologies all designed to optimise print quality and overall system performance.
For example, the Rapid Coagulation Primer (RCP) applied to the paper, and unique Fujifilm FM screening algorithms, contribute to the astounding print quality produced by their print presses.
