Xaar has been celebrating the performance and reception of its latest 5601 print head in a special event for over 300 of its UK staff.
The Xaar 5601, based on Xaar’s silicon MEMS thin-film platform, is the culmination of over eight years of R&D, the company says. The technology platform represents a major step forward in digital inkjet printing and has created a foundation for Xaar’s thin-film printheads of the future, the OEM adds.
“Understanding customer and market requirements was key to the development of the Xaar 5601,” says Ramon Borrell, chief technology officer at Xaar plc. “We wanted to create a new platform with capabilities that we didn’t have at the time. Specifically, we wanted to develop an aqueous print head, with higher resolution, higher printing speed and higher print quality.
“This meant we needed to start our development with a blank piece of paper; designing every part from the ground up and not being limited by the previous technologies.”
Doug Edwards cutting the Xaar 5601 celebration cake with Xaar UK employees looking on
With over 5600 active nozzles, the Xaar 5601 print head is the first of its kind from this new platform, providing a print resolution which is capable of jetting up to nine litres of fluid per hour at a frequency in excess of 100 kHz. In addition, the Xaar 5601 print head incorporates company’s TF Technology to maximise production uptime, print quality and the life span of the print head. Meanwhile, the unique Z profile makes fitting multiple print heads closely together possible, ensuring an exceptionally compact print zone and reduced cost of ownership, Xaar says.
“Critical to its success was the time and effort we put into visiting customers throughout the development programme to ensure we captured and delivered solutions to the key OEM and end user pain points,” says Jason Remnant, product line manager at Xaar.
Xaar is pleased with what it says has been “overwhelmingly positive feedback” following the launch of the Xaar 5601 at InPrint Milan 2018, which took place last November. Customers have been impressed by the performance of the print head in terms of “the outstanding print quality, its unparalleled usability and the print speeds that it can achieve – up to two metres per second.”
Over 300 UK-based Xaar employees celebrate the success of their latest 5601 print head
Remnant continues: “The Xaar 5601 is the culmination of all the R&D teams’ hard work on the new technology. We’ve invested in a platform that will produce not just one print head, but a family of print heads, and we wanted to recognise the hard work that has gone into the programme.”
Commenting on the day, Doug Edwards, CEO of Xaar, said: “We are immensely proud of what has been achieved in terms of delivering a completely new technology platform, which we expect to deliver a step-change in inkjet printing. Today was about recognising this and reinforcing how each person had a role to play. It is a fantastic achievement by everyone at Xaar and demonstrates our leadership in inkjet technology.”
