25 | February | 2010 | Inkjet News

Tattoos using your inkjet printer

Posted on February 25, 2010 by kflack

Thought your inkjet printer was for only making photo’s , well you were wrong…

Temporary tattoo papilio.

Now, with these new paper composites you can make temporary tattoo’s for your kids, or your self at Halloween, to attend Sporting events, or for you latest concert, or National Event (Quebec 400th birthday).

I bet you always wanted a tattoo but didn’t want to have to go through the pain of having one done (or embarrassment) . You can now have as many painless tattoos as you like by just using your inkjet or laser printer.

Simply by printing off any design to the special tattoo paper, including photos you can transfer them to any body part in minutes. The tattoo paper is easy to use and tattoos can last for up to a week before they wash off.

The key is the special tattoo paper and not the inkjet inks. Any inkjet ink will work well, but beware of raining days, as no inkjet yet on the market is fully waterproof.

You can buy this tattoo paper on-line from suppliers like papilio.com or others at reasonable rates. Also check out you local paper supply store, they probably have something similar in stock.

Don’t delay… Its time to party….

Filed under: Blogroll | Tagged: cartridges, concert, halloween, Inkjet Cartridges, painless, paper, quebec birthday, tattoo, waterproof | Leave a comment »

Inkjet Printhead life

Posted on February 25, 2010 by kflack

One of the most critical components of an inkjet machine is the printhead.

On average, every nozzle is expected to produce 20-50 billion ink drops during its lifetime (WOW) . This is considered to be the case for piezoelectric (piezo) heads; the type commonly used in Epson brand printers.

The other major brands (HP, Lexmark,DELL,and Brother) all use the thermal print head designs and the lifetime for thermal printing heads is substantially lower.

Resolution makes all the difference.

The frequency of ink drop production is directly linked to resolution and speed. For example, to print at a speed of 0.3 meter per second with a resolution of 1,000 dpi (the starting point for a graphic application), the head must fire with a frequency of 12,000 ink drops per second.

Assuming a “best case” average life expectancy of 50 billion total ink drops, the head then should be able to operate for approximately 1,150 total hours before needing to be replaced.

(Earlier for thermal heads)

What does that mean in terms of years of use, or paper use ?

1,150 hours relates to @ 10 pages per minute to about 690,000 pages or 1380 reams of 500 pages.

Or ,if you print for 1 hours every day ( 650 pages/day) your printer head would last you about 3.1 years.

Most people, print under 20 pages/day so that would work out to approx 102 years of life on your print head.

In effect, you more likely to have a power supply failure,break in the carriage motor, or other failure.

So why do so many people complain about head failures ?

Printer heads can and will fail if

a) the printer is operated without ink.

Ink in reality is a lubricant for the head assembly and without it the print head overheats and burns itself out. Just like your car need water in the radiator, you print head needs ink to keep it cool and conduct the heat away.

b) the ink is allowed to dry in the print head.

Ink, although specially formulated not to evaporate, is still prone to evaporate over time, and as a result the remaining (pigment, or dye) becomes concentrated and can eventually clog the heads. If you want to keep you printer running smoothly make sure you use your ink with 6 months of opening, and use the print head cleaning cycle on the printer at least once a month.

You printer needs ongoing maintenance just like your car, and that means the heads need to be flushed at regular intervals. Leaving your printer either out of ink, or with old ink in it is a formula for failure.

Filed under: Inkjet Info | Tagged: Epson, HP, inkjet, lubricant, piezoelectric, pigment | Leave a comment »

Ultra Violet inkjet OLEDs

Posted on February 25, 2010 by kflack

Polymertronics is a technology enabler for organic light emitting diodes (OLEDs).

They were set up in 2006 to develop technology to produce inkjet-printable, ultra-violet (UV) curable organic light-emitting diode fluids. OLEDs that can be printed on standard UV-inkjet equipment have many advantages.

UV-inkjet OLEDs - A new technology

They are much quicker and cheaper to produce than standard OLEDs, they can be designed and manufactured with very short lead times, they can be printed on to a range of exotic surfaces including flexible ones

What are UV-inkjet OLEDs?
OLEDs were first invented by Eastman Kodak in the early 1980s and development since then has been impressive. OLEDs are used routinely in many display screens, such as those for mobile phones and for low-level lighting of dashboards. Recently, substantial investment has been made in research for developing OLEDs to replace incandescent and fluorescent light bulbs as a primary lighting source.

OLEDs are produced by blending chemicals containing a light-emissive component with a UVcurable polymer. When printed, this mixture is then exposed to a UV light source and cured to a flexible solid within four seconds. The purpose they serve is for bespoke product displays such as 7-segment displays and the like.

The benefits of organic technology are numerous.

For both non-UV curable OLEDs and UV curable OLEDs, there are common benefits:

1. Printing on flexible and rigid media such as plastics, vinyl, glass and metal
2. Immediate product demand – zero lead time
3. Flexible media
4. Fast response to applied voltage for rapid changing graphics
5. Wide viewing angle of OLED devices
6. Very high definition for display

Beyond the common advantages, UV-inkjet OLEDs have further advantages:

1. Simple, fast manufacture
2. Low product waste results in a ‘green’ technology
3. Instant curing following printing
4. Print-on-demand technology
5. Zero product-volume loss during process

Where Can UV-Inkjet OLEDs Be Used?

OLEDs will add new and unparalleled layers of safety to consumer products. For example, it will reassure consumers that products and brands are genuine, that they have not been tampered with, and that they are within their use-by date.

According to the UK’s National Health Service, unclear packaging and labelling contributes to 25% of medication errors. The University of London has studied people reading packaging and found that 25% of fullsighted people have difficulty reading packets and other instructions.

Difficulty with reading information on packaging arises for a number of reasons. The label design or legal requirements may necessitate a smaller font to fit all of the information on the label. Integrating OLEDs into the packaging could highlight the most important details of a drug through an interactive display.

In the interests of sterility, many medical devices are used only once. For this to be viable, such devices must be cheap to produce. Inkjet printing enables a component of a medical device to be manufactured quickly and with significantly less tooling than is presently required. Further, medical devices are often sealed until they are used.
Advertisements can already be backlit, but with printed OLEDs the illumination can be incorporated into the advertisement itself relatively cheaply. There is no tooling required and print designs can be executed quickly. For a fast-paced industry such as advertising, this reduction in lead-time offers a substantial advantage.

Printed OLEDs could be extremely valuable in aiding anti-counterfeiting measures and in tracking goods in transit. Embedded customised data presents fraudsters with a new hurdle. Furthermore, tampering can be quickly and easily detected and data can be changed often to keep ahead of criminals.

What’s Next?
Inkjet testing of the OLED fluid has shown that further refinement of the OLED chemistry is required to enable fluid to be inkjet printed by Epson, or HP printer-heads, for when the formulation is for thin (bright) devices.

Filed under: Blogroll | Tagged: Epson, HP, inkjet.kodak, oled, organic light emitting diodes, Polymertronics, UV | Leave a comment »

Canadians Benefit from Free Market Inkjet Cartridges

Posted on February 25, 2010 by kflack

Canadians Benefit from Free Market Inkjet Cartridges

As a result of recent U.S. restrictive patent legislation and recent court rulings the sale of many compatible Epson Cartridges is no longer available to the U.S. population.

Canadians on the other hand, are not restricted by these U.S. laws, and rulings, and as a result are still free to market Epson OEM compatible products.

Of course, Canadian resellers must still abide by U.S. trade regulations, and not ship these items to U.S. destinations.

NOT all Cartridges are affected.

As a rule of thumb, any cartridge that has an electronic chip, is most likely covered by recent patent rulings and are not available for the sale in the U.S. unless the compatible “manufacturer” has it own unique patent on their own chip design.

Other restrictive practices

Probably the most unique change of late has been the modification of the Newer released printers to only accept Original Equipment manufacturers cartridges. Although the OEMs have not changed the cartridges, they do modify the microcode in their printers to recognize only OEM cartridges.

It has taken a few tries (attempts) for compatible manufacturers to identify the nature of these changes and to modify their chip programming accordingly.

What does the future hold ?

With the latest developments in higher speed inkjet printing, that enables printers to match the speed (Exceed) those of laser printers, we forsee a longer term development where all inkjet printers will offer embedded heads in their printers, and inkjet cartridges, will be similar to those currently being used by Epson and Kodak (Headless).

Similarly, there could also be a trend back to ink refill products, although there will most likely be packaging improvements to make them more attractive to customers.

Archival Inks

As the market is maturing, one sees the development of archival type inks even in the compatible cartridge product lines. OEMs are increasingly being put under the gun to reduce their prices, or risk being displaced by compatible products.

Legal Assault

OEMs will continue to fight this battle in the courts, as they have had the most success in the U.S. forcing their competitors either out of their markets, or out of the country.

Filed under: Industry News, Metawatch News Release | Tagged: ARCHIVAL INK, canadian, cartridges, CHIP, inkjet | Leave a comment »

Finally Low Cost Inkjet Supplies available across Canada

Posted on February 25, 2010 by kflack

Published on Wednesday, May 21, 2008 Pointe-Fortune, May 21, 2008- Metawatch , a supplier specializing in third party (Epson, Canon and HP compatible and Remanufactured cartridges) Inkjet supplies continues to expand its customer base across Canada.

Metawatch, initially founded in response to high inkjet cartridge pricing, has now evolved into a fully independent, self supporting operational infrastructure with distribution capability across Canada.

Metawatch prides itself on supplying high quality, reliable products across Canada at some of the lowest prices available in the inkjet market backed by a 100% SATISFACTION guarantee makes them a safe choice for your investment in inkjet supplies.

To offset the high cost of shipping product across Canada they offer several price points to their customers.

Orders over $50.00 have free shipping while orders under $20.00 will cost you $10.99. Orders of $20-$30 are $8.50 and orders between $30-$50 will cost you $7.50 for delivery.

As products typically have a 2 year expiry date, clients are encouraged to purchase a 1 years supply (or more than $50.00) to maximize their savings.

Operating as an E-Commerce Mail order company, Metawatch has been able to keep operational costs at a minimum, and bring those savings directly back to their internet based clientele.

To protect its clients against industry product quality and supply issues Metawatch maintains strict quality standards and redundant supplier capabilities. This ensures the capability to provide product to its clients without interruption regardless of industry product availability or quality issues.

Marketing Contact Ken Flack – Metawatch
T: 450-612-1212
E: kflack@metawatch.ca
http://www.metwatch.ca

Filed under: Metawatch News Release | Tagged: 3rd party compatible inkjet cartridges, 3rd party inkjet.Lexmark Remanufactured cartridges, Canon, cartridges canada, compatible, Epson, HP Incentives, low cost, Metawatch | Leave a comment »

New photovoltaics and printed electronics by inkjet

Posted on February 25, 2010 by kflack

A recent article printed in Printed Electronics World said

New photovoltaics and printed electronics by inkjet - Japan/USA

New opportunities for printing electronics include: polymer solar film (above) ; flexible polymer-based lighting; electronic books printed polymer backplanes; transparent solar cells; flexible electronics and batteries; paper-like products; disposable diagnostic devices; intelligent packaging and large area electronics.
That was the message of Fujifilm Dimatix at the world’s largest conference and exhibition on printed electronics in Dresden Germany in April. This was the Printed Electronics Europe event of IDTechEx. It will now be leapfrogged by the sister event Printed Electronics USA in San Jose California being even bigger.

Chuck Griggs, VP Applications Engineering of Fujifilm Dimatix, Inc. saw the advantages of inkjet as non-contact and drop on demand and it reduces both materials processing and environmental impact. Printheads and fluids developed in tandem for specific application requirements. R&D metrics are directly translatable to production protocols.

The market/ technology positioning is:

Remarkable event not to be missed

This remarkable event will not be burdened by discussion of the old crystalline and amorphous silicon technologies. It will cover the better performing and increasingly lower cost new technologies such as CdTe, DSSC, CIGS and organic. Indeed, CdTe photovoltaics, which is thin film but not yet printed, has attracted 1.5 billion dollars in orders in the last few months alone. The other technologies can already be printed and some are in production in the USA, UK, Germany and Japan, with much more to come. This subject is extremely exciting and it will lead to many innovative new products exploiting such things as invisible solar power on watches, packages and medical disposables for example.

The macro features of inkjet include:
Print accuracy > 20 microns
Drop volume > 10 pL
High throughput
High print speed
High throw rate of ink
This leads to typical applications being:
Bio and Chemical Sensors
Solar Cells
Dielectric Coating
Photo Resist
Adhesives
The key enabling attributes of ink jet were cited as:
Full production speed (over 100m/min)
Single pass imaging
Non-contact
Wide variety of fluids and inks
Reliable performance
Photovoltaics is easiest because conductive traces only need to be better than 75 microns whereas for backplanes they need to be ˜ 20 microns. Organic TFTs need fine feature size 10 pL drops and 40-100 micron line width depending on fluid, substrate, and spot density with 1pl drops 15 – 30 micron line depending on fluid, substrate, and spot density.

Increasingly, devices combine organic and inorganic materials, as with the Dye Sensitized Solar cells DSSC inkjet printed reel to reel in the UK and the biosensor that has been made by Fujifilm Dimatix.

For more on photovoltaics attend Photovoltaics Beyond Conventional Silicon or attend Printed Electronics USA 2008.

Filed under: Blogroll | Tagged: boitech, inkjet, photovoltaics, pv, smart cards | Leave a comment »

Aftermakert Inkjet Price Forecast

Posted on February 25, 2010 by kflack

Metawatch Canada continues to Offer industry first(s) by exceeding price discounts for average Aftermarket Desktop Ink Cartridge Prices.

Across all vendors, Metawatch Inkjet still supplies some of the lowest cost product to the market and has been able to maintain Quality and reliability levels exceeding 99.9%.

Filed under: Industry News | Tagged: 3rd party compatible inkjet cartridges, canada, Epson has Higher Quality, epson lower prices, relaibility | Leave a comment »

HP Technology to Create Industry-first Skin Patch for “Smart” Drug Delivery

Posted on February 25, 2010 by kflack

Monday, September 17, 2007

PALO ALTO, Calif., Sept. 11, 2007

Inkjet based skin patch

HP and Crospon, a medical device developer based in Galway, Ireland, today announced they have entered a licensing agreement for a drug delivery platform that enables painless, controlled release of one or more drugs in a single patch applied to the skin.

Under the agreement, HP will license its intellectual property to Crospon in return for royalty payments. Crospon will commercialize the patch, which was invented by HP Labs, the company’s central research facility, and make it available to pharmaceutical companies to use in various therapeutic areas.

Crospon, which recently announced the finalization of €2.3 million in seed financing, will manufacture the skin patch and manage all marketing, sales and support of the technology.

The patch delivers medication intradermally

The patch delivers medication intradermally – just below the surface of the skin – and enables precise control of dosage timing, access to dosage history, patient activation mechanisms and inherent safety protocols for preventing adverse drug interactions.

Transdermal patches (which rely on absorption through the skin) for nicotine delivery have become a mainstay for smoking cessation programs; however, they have not been a widely effective delivery mechanism for many drugs because the skin acts as a natural barrier.

Micro Needles

The HP-developed skin patch uses microneedles that barely penetrate the skin; this radically reduces discomfort compared to traditional hypodermic needles and enables the technique to be used with a much wider variety of drugs and biopharmaceuticals. The microneedles allow medication to quickly enter the bloodstream, resulting in the potential delivery of lower and more precise dosages.

HP initially developed the drug delivery technology as a way to repurpose its inkjet technology for use in new markets. The technology in the skin patch is similar to that employed in HP’s patented process for its inkjet cartridges.

“This industry-first skin patch invented by HP allows Crospon to offer a superior drug delivery platform for doctors and patients,” said John O’Dea, chief executive officer, Crospon. “We look forward to working with our pharmaceutical customers to bring this breakthrough solution to the market.”

Filed under: Blogroll, Industry News | Tagged: 3rd party compatible inkjet cartridges, crospon, HP, micro needle, microneedles, Transdermal | Leave a comment »

Desktop Inkjet Ink Trends 2010

Posted on February 25, 2010 by kflack

Excerpt Lyra Report (At a Cross Roads: The Past, Present, and Future of Inkjet)

Desktop ink jet ink manufacturers must continuously innovate in a market that is largely stagnant and has rising costs. Their clients, including both OEM and aftermarket players, demand the latest in dye- and pigment-based ink technology at a time when cartridge SKUs are being introduced at an unprecedented pace. Ink manufacturers must always consider return-on-investment even though demand for ink jet products is questionable and the market features widespread fragmentation. However, in the midst of the uncertainty, there is a consensus among those in the industry that ink jet has a future and that innovators will benefit.

Overall, Lyra forecasts that total worldwide desktop bulk ink shipments will decline slightly between 2008 (32.2 million liters) and 2012 (29.3 million liters). Looking at the desktop ink market by region, Europe, the Middle East, and Africa (EMEA) is expected to remain the largest market in terms of volume. North America will continue to be the second largest market in terms of desktop ink shipments, but it will contract at the quickest rate between 2008 and 2012.

An interesting and important trend is the slow growth of desktop inks in the emerging markets of Latin America and Asia. Although printers are being sold, consumers in China, India, Eastern Europe and South America have not adopted ink jet printing at nearly the same levels as those in developed markets. One obvious reason for the slow acceptance is the high cost of ink jet consumables. In recent years, Epson and HP have both expanded their ink jet product lines designed for low per capita income countries. Initial sales figures indicate that relatively low-priced OEM ink cartridges are driving sales in places such as China. Other factors for tepid growth are not unique to developing regions. Laser hardware is cost competitive and durable, and most consumers do not require a printer outside of the office.

Ink jet printer manufacturers often tout the benefits of their color pigment inks for photo printing. However, it is possible that office printing will be responsible for driving significant growth in the market for color pigmented inks in upcoming years. As a result of technological improvements, pigment inks can now be optimized for a wide range of home, photo, and office applications. Pigment-based inks are expected to capture a greater share of ink jet ink volume and eventually become the dominant ink type. As a segment, pigment-based ink shipments (black and color) are projected to contract only slightly between 2008 (15.5 million liters) and 2012 (15.1 million liters). As with pigments, developers have overcome many of the earlier limitations of dye-based inks. Still, dye ink volume and market share is expected to shrink from 52 percent in 2008 to 49 percent in 2012.

Filed under: Industry News | Tagged: cartridge, dye ink, inkjet consumables, laser, lyra, oem inkjet cartridge, photo printing, pigment based inks, pigment inks | Leave a comment »

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