Epson Printhead - printing technology at a high level

Already in the 1970s, the pressure equipment manufacturer Epson intensified its development work to improve the printing technology. After numerous developments, researches, prototypes and printer tests exploring, testing and documenting different technologies, Epson focused its efforts on further developing the piezo printing technology of the 1980s.

After five years of development work, the sufficiently sophisticated micro-piezo print head technology with a print head whose design went back to the so-called multi-layer piezo element with the Epson Stylus 800 printing device came on the market. The printhead of the Epson Stylus 800 is based on micro-piezo technology and has 48 nozzles. In 2007, the advanced technology Micro-Piezo was introduced, which accommodates even more nozzles, although the print head is considerably smaller.

As a result, Micro-Piezo technology improves print output in image, graphics, text, and photo printing by enabling dramatically larger conversion of high-resolution output files and delivering maximum print resolution up to that point. The Micro-Piezo technology is also constantly evolving and has achieved with the Epson PrecisionCore technology, a performance in the Epson printhead, which sets new standards at a very high level in the printing sector.

Epson Printhead - Two Breakthrough Technologies for High-Quality Printing

• MicroPiezo TFP Epson printhead technology
• PrecisionCore Epson printhead technology

The Epson Printhead in MicroPiezo TFP technology

The MicroPiezo TFP Epson printhead technology marks the first milestone in the manufacturer's printing technology, setting the benchmark for print quality, speed and longevity at a high level. The Epson printhead technology MicroPiezo TFP uses the so-called piezoelectric effect. The piezoelectric effect, which is also called the piezoelectric effect, represents a change in the electrical polarization, which generates an electrical voltage on bodies and thus causes a deformation.

In Micro Piezo TFP Epson printhead technology, electrical voltage is applied to a plate, which then deforms due to the piezoelectric effect and forces liquid ink out of a nozzle in the printhead. Behind the ink nozzles of the printhead sits an element that is connected to a vibratable plate. As soon as electrical voltage is generated, the element bends outwards, creating a negative pressure through which ink is drawn.

To eject the ink, the polarity is reversed again, the element bends in the other direction and shoots the ink through the nozzle in the printhead. The ink is applied to the paper with high speed and accuracy. The MicroPiezo TFP Epson printhead technology also allows fine adjustment in the electrical charge to allow additional control over the amount of ink to be ejected, with variations in the technical operations. This accurately controls the application of ink to the paper and achieves very high precision in the reproduction of high-resolution image files.

Since the ink is not subject to temperature fluctuations during printing with the Epson MicroPiezo TFP Technology Printhead and is not heated, droplet sizes as small as 1.5 picoliters are ejected onto the paper when the ink is ejected. After numerous printer tests, the printer test results describe the high precision achieved with the Epson MicroPiezo TFP printhead technology and demonstrate the minimization of droplet size through extensive engineering in extensive series of tests.

The high precision in the control of the Epson printhead is referred to by the manufacturer with the term Variable Sized Droplet Technology - VSDT short.

Rock in the surf - the Epson printhead in Micro Piezo technology

In MicroPiezo technology, the Epson printhead is built into the printing device as a solid component and therefore not part of the ink cartridges. After using the inks, Epson customers can dispose of the printer cartridges while the printhead remains in the machine. Since the printhead does not have to be replaced and has to withstand the pressure requirements in the long term even after repeated replacement of the ink cartridge as a solid component, it is constructed with sturdy material and robustly processed.

Because the Epson printhead, with its high-quality production equipment, adds an extra component of investment to the manufacturer, the printer models equipped with MicroPiezo technology are in the higher range. The investment in purchasing a MicroPiezo printer is offset by the convenient provision of printer supplies to the customer. The ink cartridges for the MicroPiezo technology are cheaper because they do not contain an Epson printhead and are manufactured with a correspondingly lower use of material and technology.

The Epson printhead in technology PrecisionCore

With the PrecisionCore technology, the manufacturer optimizes the relevant high-quality printing properties through the high-quality standard in its Epson print head:

• speed
• quality
• Reliability
• Wide range of printer accessories
• Scalability

The Epson Printhead Technology PrecisionCore achieves high quality results based on years of research and development. The manufacturer has made a major investment in the marketability of its PrecisionCore technology and, in addition to providing its advanced technology, has also achieved major development advances in materials science.

The Epson printhead and the speed

PrecisionCore Epson printhead technology uses print chips that deliver one of the fastest printing technologies in the world. The elements that trigger piezoelectric effect in the PrecisionCore technology are activated up to 50,000 times a second with the sophisticated Epson printhead. The Epson printhead of the PrecisionCore technology with its high technical standard shows printouts at a high quality level at a maximum set speed.

The Epson printhead and the quality

The Epson printhead of PrecisionCore technology has up to three times the density of fine nozzles than printheads from Epson Piezo technology. The nozzles in the printhead have a diameter of up to 20 microns each, through which minimized ink droplets of about 40 microns in diameter are dispensed in a precise circular shape to precise points.

Prints printed with an Epson printhead using PrecisionCore technology display high-precision text with crisp, clear-cut output and accurate drawing of lines, curves, and edges.

The Epson printhead and reliability

In the Epson printhead with PrecisionCore technology, the so-called piezoelectric crystals ensure high reliability. The piezocrystal automatically builds up an electrical voltage that enables a functional test within milliseconds that determines whether the piezo element is performing correctly. Thus equipped, the nozzle in the Epson printhead performs a reliable self-diagnosis, which guarantees high stability in its functioning.

The Epson printhead and its printer accessories

Because ejecting the ink onto the paper using the elements in the Epson printhead based on PrecisionCore technology does not generate heat, printer supplies such as ink and paper need not have any special heat resistance properties. Without material limitations, a variety of different inks and papers can be used in PrecisionCore technology. This not only allows various special formulas to be used for the printing supplies used, such as inks and substrates, but also numerous combinations of ink and paper that function in a particular way with each other.

For example, for printing with PrecisionCore technology, inks containing higher levels of dyes, pigments, or chemical additives can be used to enhance the intensity and brilliance of the colors, or a much wider range of colors. The paper is not limited in its use and can be used in a wide variety of substrates.

The Epson printhead and scalability

Scalability in printing technology is the number of possible applications. The Epson printhead of the PrecisionCore technology allows the use of desktop printers in the private sector to industrial printing systems. The cooperation of a variety of printing chips with the variants of the Epson printhead guarantees a large variability in use.