InfoTrends Forecast: Inkjet Targets Commercial

Developments of inks for commercial printing concentrated on improving ink properties to reduce the frequency of nozzle failure while improving the drying process. Drying in high-speed inkjet becomes a critical property due to the short time the ink has to be dried in a high-speed press.

New developments allow a primer to be added to the paper prior to the main print stations as a flood coat, or as something to be jetted on the image areas only. Two other examples of relevant advances in manufacturing are in the control electronics that drive the inkjet heads and the digital front ends (DFEs) providing the print image. As the new high-speed devices rely a lot on variable data applications, the digital front end has to stream variable printing images at full rated speed.