New Ink Jet Technology

[Sideshow Bob]

Wow! Watch the video about this new print head. Very impressive!

http://texyt.com/silverbrook+memjet+technology+available+desktop+photo+wideformat+hp+edgeline+comparison

Gale

[Sideshow Bob]

Sorry, try this link then then select and play the videos.

Gale

http://www.memjet.com/media.aspx

[Stephen Willard]

I am quite amazed that no one has commented on this. I am not a digital kind of guy, but I was awed at what I saw. Gale, do you know if the prints are archival?
Has anyone had a chance to explore this? Cheap, fast, higher quality, and perhaps archival? Wow! If these things are true, and they can bring it to market they could put Cannon, HP, and Epson out of business? Why am I worried about this technology be bought out and discarded by the big three because it would kill their $2000 per gallon inkjet profits?

Am I missing something here?

[Ted Harris]

Read more of the detail and, while it doesn't tell you if the prints are archival, it clearly gives the ipression that they are not. Talks about them in terms of replacement for banner printing and color laserjets.

[Steven Barall]

It is amazing. It's clearly not for everyone but it's great. It's amazing watching those huge color prints just sort of appear out of nowhere like that.

[Dominique Labrosse]

Seems that the printheads accomodate only 5 inks. Most serious photo printers out there use at least 6 and as many as 12. As a result I figure that the gamut is likely not as wide as a decent conventional inkjet photo printer.

It is impressive though to see an A4/letter sized inkjet printer printing at a speed of 60 pages per minute in full colour.

[Brian Ellis]

"Wow! If these things are true, and they can bring it to market they could put Cannon, HP, and Epson out of business? "

The text says they expect Canon, HP, and Epson to be their customers, not their competitors. But I don't quite get what the fuss is about - all I read (and I didn't read everything on the site) just talked about how fast the technology was, not about greatly improved quality.

[Brian C. Miller]

From the memjet site:
Q Does the Memjet technology use a special ink formulation?
A Yes and No. Memjet inks are customized to ensure great print quality using a Memjet printhead. Using the wrong ink can dramatically impact the print quality and drop-firing on a Memjet printhead. While the chemistry of the ink formulation is unique and specific, it isn’t fundamentally different than the water-based inks used in the industry today.

I suppose that its a dye-based ink. However, the real difference is that it uses page-width printing, and not passing the print head back and forth. Of course this is not new for general printer technology, but it is new for photo inkjets. This was/is called "line printing" and an entire line gets printed as the paper passes under the print mechanism.

[gregstidham]

The demos look rather fake IMO. Load a bunch of pre-printed media and let them feed out. I'll watch for this at the next trade show.