Picojet have developed an inkjet printhead made out of stainless steel. Aimed at industrial printing applications, this isn’t likely to feature in a home inkjet printer any time soon. The new printhead can jet a wide range of liquids, including oil, water, solvent and hot melt (wax).

PicoJet Press Release

PicoJet Reaches Development Milestone With Successful Demonstration of New Stainless Steel Ink Jet Printhead

HILLSBORO, Ore., March 14 /PRNewswire/—PicoJet, Inc., a designer and manufacturer of state-of-the-art piezoelectric drop-on-demand printheads, announces it has reached a development milestone with the successful demonstration of its new stainless steel PJ-N256 drop-on-demand inkjet printhead.

The demonstration was a benchmark of the printhead’s initial printing capabilities at the completion of a five month development project. The PJ-N256 printhead successfully proved its ability to fire each of the 256 jets simultaneously at 10,000 drops per second creating a 300 dpi image. It produced full color images using UV-curable ink jetted onto foam board, poster board, canvas, textile, glass, metal and plastic media. This same technology will allow simultaneous firing at over 20,000 drops per second enabling higher print speeds and resolution in the future.

“This demonstration was an exciting developmental milestone,” says Hue Le, President of PicoJet, Inc. “We are confident that after years of research and development we can overcome the barriers that have kept inkjet printing from migrating into broad industrial printing applications.”

PicoJet’s new PJ-N256 printhead uses a patented, ultrasonic bonding technology, which makes it extremely durable for industrial printing applications. The all metal ink channel allows the printhead to jet a wide range of aggressive ink chemistries including UV-curable, oil, water, solvent, hot melt (wax), conductive inks and other difficult to jet fluids. With neither epoxy nor piezo ceramic used in the ink channel, the printhead is not susceptible to nozzle clogging and can jet a wide range of fluids with high reliability. PicoJet’s proprietary manufacturing process is designed for automated assembly providing extremely cost-effective manufacture and low unit pricing.

About PicoJet, Inc.
PicoJet designs and manufactures state-of-the-art piezoelectric drop-on- demand printheads. The company was founded in 1997 by Hue Le, the former Director of Technology Development for Tektronix Printing and Imaging Division, to develop a printhead to address the needs of a wide range of industrial printing applications in textile, packaging, signage, biotechnology, drug related research, electronics/conductive fluids, RFID tags and others. PicoJet is now ready to partner and move into pilot production with developers of industrial printing and jetting systems.. More information is available at www.picojet.com.