Ricoh launches Industrial Inkjet Printhead RICOH TH6310F

Background

In the industrial print market for textiles, corrugated cardboards, labels and other products, there is an increasing demand to meet a variety of customer needs, including smaller run sizes and shorter delivery times. These needs are being addressed by the rapid digitalisation of industrial print, contributing to overall greater flexibility, efficiency, and productivity. These shifting and expanding requirements call for increasing demand for inkjet printheads that offer higher productivity and high-resolution printing.

Main features of the newly developed inkjet printhead

1. High-resolution printing and high gap printing by MEMS technology
   Ricoh's unique highly-integrated design using MEMS technology has achieved a 2.6-inch printing width with an array of 1,600 nozzles^*4 by configuring two modules of 100 × 8 rows. It is also capable of using fine droplet ejection. Furthermore, the nozzle layout is designed to prevent airflow from ejected ink droplets from affecting adjacent droplets and resulting image quality, enabling high-quality printing even with a 4mm gap.^*5
2. High jetting stability due to unique ink recirculation mechanism
   The ink recirculation structure continuously circulates ink behind the nozzle. This structure significantly reduces the risk of nozzle drying, ink particle sedimentation, and other jetting failures, thus ensuring ejection reliability and printhead productivity. This provides increased reliability for single-pass^*6 printing of 100m/min or more.
3. Highly versatile
   Compatible with Aqueous-based, UV, and Solvent inks and can be used in a wide range of industrial applications, including textiles, corrugated cardboards, labels, binder jet, and signage graphics.
4. Simple design
   Ink ports offer a simple one in one out^*7 system that can be easily integrated into printing systems.
5. Excellent jetting ability
   Jetting frequency up to 80 kHz in binary mode. The new Dual Vcom^*8 function achieves superior jetting frequency of up to 40 kHz in multi-drop mode.

*1  A kind of piezoelectric transducer that creates mechanical deformation by applying a voltage used for jetting drops of ink.
*2  Micro-Electro-Mechanical-Systems: a general term for miniatured electro-mechanical devices or technology.
*3  Printing that requires distance between the printhead and the media, such as printing on uneven surfaces.
*4  Staggered array of nozzle rows with 75 npi per row.
*5  Depends on the combination of ink and print media used.
*6  The printhead remains in a fixed position and completes image printing in a single pass while the print material is conveyed underneath.
*7  To function ink circulation, one ink port (inlet for ink delivery) is located on the ink supply side and one on the ink discharge side.
*8  Two types of drive waveforms can be selected for each nozzle to shorten the drive cycle.

Relevant Contents

• RICOH TH6310F
• RICOH TH6310F Movie
• Industrial Inkjet RICOH TH/MH/GH