M-real International inkjet printing, Brochure

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14
Inkjet’s different images
In newly emerging areas like medical
imaging and 3-D printing, significant
improvement still needs to be made to
the print head design and ink
formulations in order to fulfil the high
expectations of printer reliability and
image durability demanded.
But drop-on-demand inkjet’s capacity to
print vivid colour images at relatively low
cost has already led to the technology’s
particular dominance in both the cutsize,
Small Office and Home Office (SOHO)
sector and in the large-format colour
printer market.
Cut to Size
In the office network colour printer
market, the battle between colour laser
and colour inkjet printing technologies is
still ongoing: the delicate balance
between print speed, image quality,
image durability, purchase price and
operation cost all key factors.
The facts are that:
•
by end 2002, over 50% of the SOHO
printer market is expected to have turned
to colour - this statistic includes both
laser and inkjet printer options, with the
latter steadily gaining dominant market
share;
•
there is a continued decentralisation of
office printing away from the photocopier
towards personal ‘desktop’ printers;
•
high quality colour documents such as
proposals and presentations, previously
outsourced to printers and copy shops,
are being printed more and more in-
house;
•
the growing range of digital cameras
and desktop scanners has seen
widescale escalation of desktop printing
of images.
A
S TOUCHED ON THROUGHOUT THIS DOCUMENT
,
INKJET PRINTING
TECHNOLOGIES ARE USED IN A WIDE RANGE OF APPLICATIONS INCLUDING
HOME
,
OFFICE
,
LARGE FORMAT
,
INDUSTRIAL
,
THREE
-
DIMENSIONAL
,
MEDICAL
,
PACKAGING
,
TEXTILE AND OTHER SPECIALTY PRINTING SECTORS AND EVEN
COMMERCIAL WEB
-
FED PRINT WORK
.
Market/Application Key Player
Current Markets Small office/ Hewlett-Packard,
and Applications: home office Canon, Epson
Office network Tektronix, Hewlett-Packard
Graphic arts Iris, Tektronix, Epson
Industrial/postal VideoJet, Marsh, Image,
marking Willet
Large format ColorSpan, Encad, Hewlett-
Packard, Mimaki, Epson
Emerging Markets Home photo Hewlett-Packard, Epson,
and Applications: Canon
Multifunction Hewlett-Packard, Canon
Digital color press Scitex, ACS, Tektronix
Grand format Idanit, Vutek, Nur,
ColorSpan, Mutoh
Textile Canon, Seiren, Stork, Toxot
Medical imaging Iris, Sterling Diagnostic
3-D printing 3D System, Z Corporation
Applications in Inkjet Printing