Archive for the ‘innovation’ Category

Inkjet Fulled With Cells Can Produce Hearts

by Stan Retner

11/27/2008

The technology is the same as that of the simple inkjet printer found in homes and offices, but Japanese scientist Makoto Nakamura is on a mission to see if it can also produce human organs.

The idea is that the printer jets out thousands of cells per second instead of ink droplets, and builds them up into a three-dimensional organ. Nakamura compares the process to building a huge skyscraper on a micro level using different kinds of cells and other materials instead of steel beams, concrete and glass.

The ultimate goal the Japanese scientist is to make a heart. In case of success this would give hope for many patients waiting for heart transplants, as a heart made of cells originating from the patient could eliminate fears that the body would reject it.

The very technology works a bit like dealing with sliced fruit: an organ is cut horizontally, allowing researchers to see an array of cells on the surface. If a printer drops cells one by one into the right spots and repeats the process for many layers, it creates a 3D organ.

Much like a printer chooses different colors, the machine can position different types of cells to drop. The printer can adjust where to drop cells in the order of one-thousandth of a millimeter and produce a tube at a speed of three centimeters per two minutes.

Nakamura dismisses the idea of printing brains or trying to create new life. He says he’s thinking about making superhuman cyborgs. There are simply lives that could be saved if there are organs.

In the future, Nakamura also said the technology could pave the way for bioprinting with stem cells — which could go into building healthy new organs.

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Posted in innovation, technology, printer, inkjet | Comments Off

Paper, Ink and Sunlight Make a Lab-on-a-Chip

by Stan Retner

09/24/2008

Africa-shaped Paper Lab-on-a-Chip A lab-on-a-chip device can now be made at home on a piece of paper. All it takes is the right paper, ink, and sunlight to create a microfluidic device that can not only test water quality but also identify deceases.

George Whitesides and his colleagues at Harvard developed this new method to help developing countries access the latest lab techniques.

They have found that paper naturally contains pores that can be used to carry liquids just like in standard chips.

In order to make “walls” leak-proof and confine the fluids into narrow channels, the researchers used so called photoresist, a polymer liquid that hardens if subjected to UV radiation.

To make a paper chip, the researchers saturated a piece of regular printer paper with photoresist.

Next, they covered one side of the paper with transparency, and then used a pen to draw the desired pattern of channels on top.

The saturated with photoresist paper hardens under UV light except for the area that was masked beneath the inked-on pattern.

Once the paper dried, the researchers got a leak-proof sheet with a tiny network of embedded permeable channels within. In other words, they got a microfluidic device.

While drawing onto the transparency by hand is not very precise, but Whitesides claimed that the designs could simply be printed onto the transparency using an inkjet printer.

Via NewScientist.com

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Printer For Ceramic Tiles

by Stan Retner

09/18/2008

KeraMagic digital printer for ceramic tiles Newtech SRL has announced KeraMagic, the first digital color printer to produce images on ceramic tiles.

The new printer is based on inkjet technology, incorporates grayscale Xaar 1001 inkjet printheads to carry out drop-on-demand jobs in a single pass

The KeraMagic is available is two configurations – the 350 mm width model and a 700 mm width model. It can print at up to 25m per minute at resolutions up to 360 dpi and with eight levels of grayscale.

The company says the KeraMagic can output a variety of fluids to produce tiles effectively in short-run volumes.

Newtech SRL will launch KeraMagic at Tecnargilla, which takes place in Rimini on 30 September to 4 October.

Via www.printweek.com

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HP Innovations in Printer Ink, Toner & Media

by Stan Retner

05/30/2008

HP logo HP earlier this week announced breakthroughs in printer ink, printer toner, and media technologies that allow customers to get color printing quality comparable to offset printing.

The list of the HP’s breakouts includes:

ColorSphere Toner
Dual Drop Volume Technology
Enhanced ‘Low Melt’ Monochrome Toner
ColorLok Media
XL Inkjet Print Cartridges
Simple Black range of cartridges
Dual Pack LaserJet Cartridges

Now let us see what is what and who is who. (more…)

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Posted in toner, innovation, inks, cartridges, HP | 1 Comment »

Inkjet Printer Helps Split Water with Sunlight and Generate Hydrogen

by Stan Retner

04/10/2008

Hello! Today we have some hi-tech news again, the “we found another use for inkjet printer” kind of news.

So, there is a company, FUJIFILM Dimatix, that supplies drop-on-demand inkjet printheads for industrial applications. The company recently announced that researchers at the Department of Chemistry at Colorado State University used its cartridge-based Dimatix Materials Printer (DMP) to devise a method of developing new materials for producing hydrogen from water and sunlight.

FUJIFILM Dimatix DMP-2800 The researchers used a Materials Printer to do the necessary calculations and precisely print arrays of finely-graded compounds onto special transparent substrates.

The new method allowed the researchers to isolate a particular chemical compound that has potential for water photoelectrolysis. Water photoelectrolysis is a conversion of sunlight into an electrical current that divides water into hydrogen and oxygen. This process is critical for energy-efficient hydrogen production.

The printer uses the Dimatix Materials Cartridge that has 16 nozzles linearly spaced at 254 microns with typical drop sizes of 1 and 10 picoliters. These cartridges allowed the researchers to accurately determine individual droplet volumes of the compound gradients, the number of nozzles firing, the jetting waveform for individual nozzles and the frequency of nozzle firing. Such level of customization makes it a great printer, indeed.

The compound optimized during the research is made of three common elements – aluminum, cobalt and iron. The researchers hope that the method can be used to find new solar water splitting materials that are both functional and inexpensive.

As oil prices go up, discovery of new materials for the production of alternative fuels is very appealing.

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World’s First Cationic Inkjet Printer

by Stan Retner

03/27/2008

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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Kyocera Creates World’s Fastest Inkjet Printhead

by Stan Retner

03/27/2008

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

Kyocera KJ4 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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