Here is another device from the family of “The World’s Mosts and Firsts”. This is a wide-format Solara ion inkjet printer by Gerber.

The printer can print on virtually any surface that is up 64 inches wide and up to 1 inch thick! When it comes to printing speed, the device covers up to 639 square feet per hour at a resolution of up to 1440 dpi on rigid and rollable media. Gerber Solara ion printer makes printouts that can last up to 3 years outdoors without lamination.

So, what actually make this printer world’s first? Of course, it’s the technologies behind it.

Solara ion printer is the first to use GerberCAT cationic inks that dry instantly and are ready to use right after printing. Besides, these inks feature unmatched adhesion on materials problematic for other ink jet printers such as textiles or even glass.

Next is Cold Fire Cure technology that allows printing on wider range of heat sensitive media such as plastic, vinyl, fabric, and paper based materials. Needless to say, the technology produces no volatile organic compounds, no odors, and no environmental ozone.

As you can see, this is no ordinary device you would buy home. Gerber says that the device is targeted at printing applications such as billboards, fleet graphics or vehicle wraps.

Up to date, there is no any exact information on the price of this printer. Gerber, however, mentioned that the Solara ion offers better performance than any other such printer on the market today for under $150,000.

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You may be pleased to know that Kyocera announced a development of the world fastest and industry widest drop-on-demand inkjet printhead.

The KJ4 Series printhead that was developed in cooperation with Brother is claimed to print at speeds of

• up to 200 m per minute at a resolution of 600×480 dpi
• up to 150 m per minute at 600×600 dpi.

They didn’t specify the width of a print produced at such speed, but it seems to be the width of the printhead ifself, that is 10 cm.

The printhead comprises a Kyocera-developed piezo actuator that accommodates 2,656 ink nozzles in a 108 mm-wide arrangement. The device dimensions are 200×25x58 mm.

The printhead is versatile and can use both water-based pigment and UV inks, delivering them in 4 to 20 picolitres droplets onto variety of media – from paper to fabric, film and plastic.

In performance test, two printheads used in Miyakoshi Printing Machinery MJP600 printers were able to achieved outputs of 1,000 A4 sheets per hour.

Commercial sales of the KJ4 Series printhead will start in April 2008, which means we’re going to see devices printing at light speed some 3-4 month later.

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