Technical White Paper

The Xaar Guide to Single Pass Printing

Author: Mark Alexander Date: February 2008

Copyright 2008 Xaar plc. All Rights Reserved. Other names and brands may be claimed as the property of others. Information regarding third party products is provided solely for educational purposes. Xaar is not responsible for the performance or support of third party products and does not make any representations or warranties whatsoever regarding quality, reliability, functionality, or compatibility of these devices or products.

Xaar Guide to Single Pass Inkjet Printing

Contents
Introduction Single Pass Printing: Desirable Characteristics Printhead and Drop Formation Options Quality: Resolution and Shades / Tones Single Pass Printing: Technology Requirements How Xaar Variable Drop Technology Works Variable Drop: Quality & Production Benefits Commercial Applications Summary Contact Us 1 2 5 8 12 13 15 17 20 20

Xaar Guide to Single Pass Inkjet Printing

Section 1
Introduction
What is the ideal solution for the fast growing short-run print market? Until now digital printing has not been able to achieve the speed, quality and reliability delivered by commercial printing techniques. However the new generation of variable drop piezoelectric inkjet printheads are capable of delivering both the quality and the speed at high performance levels and innovative printing systems based on these printheads are quickly coming to market. In this guide we explain how single pass inkjet printing is now a commercial and industrial reality by making the most of tightly controlled variable drop printhead technology. Inkjet printings flexibility is changing the world we live in and variable drop, high quality printing is a significant development that has moved inkjet printing into new markets, bringing with it new creative possibilities. Here we will look at the features and benefits of inkjet printing technology available today and how it can enable industrial strength single pass printing.

Xaar Guide to Single Pass Inkjet Printing

Section 2
Single Pass Printing: Desirable Characteristics
High productivity at an optimal cost High print quality from adjustable and variable sized (greyscale) drops Reliable and consistent results in a real production environment. The primary benefit of single pass printing is of course speed and therefore productivity. Simply, printing directly onto a moving web or sheet minimises any time lost between copies or pages so you can print as fast as the technology allows. This is in contrast to other established inkjet applications, namely wide and grand format graphics printing. These large format scanning devices act just like bigger versions of your desktop printer. As the printed dots are small, these devices perform many passes (hence called multi-pass printing) to cover the paper fully and to provide the detail required. The downside to multi-pass printing is that it is a relatively slow procedure as time is lost at each end of the scan, plus there is a need to put down lots more drops to cover the paper in the printed areas. Inkjet has become well established in the low production large format sector. However, with the right inkjet technology, there is a considerable impact that can be achieved in high production, single pass applications.

Xaar Guide to Single Pass Inkjet Printing

Key Inkjet Elements There are four key elements that are important for an industrial strength single pass inkjet system: 1. High print quality: Achieving high quality print in a single pass requires very small changes in ink lay down. This can be achieved either with a very large number of nozzles (with associated high cost) and small drops or variable-sized droplets with small increments in drop size (greyscale) from the same nozzles. 2. High native resolution: This is necessary to provide the density of nozzles in each printhead for high quality print, simpler integration and minimum cost. This demands a high nozzle count (i.e. nozzles per inch) which is enabled by shared wall technology 1 . 3. Long life: High dots per inch (dpi) printing requires a high number of actuations or drops fired, whether small drop binary or greyscale. This in turn means you need industrial strength lifetime of the printhead (over 1012 actuations). Shear mode actuation 2 is the ideal choice for longevity as it has been shown to exceed 1013 actuations with no failure mode. 4. Reliability: This means sustained, consistent print performance over typical print run lengths and working shifts as well as self-recovery. This can be achieved with the latest through-flow techniques which require an acoustic firing mode.

Shared Wall Technology

Each wall is shared between 2 channels optimising channel/nozzle density.

2

Shear Mode Actuation

A low stress deformation mode of PZT, the piezoelectric material Xaar uses to create the inkjet channels that form the printhead actuator, where an electric field is applied perpendicular to the poling direction.

Xaar Guide to Single Pass Inkjet Printing

Key Printhead Characteristics In order to select the right inkjet printhead you need to consider the following characteristics: 1. The maximum flexibility to choose the right drop size range to achieve the combination of quality and speed you require. 2. The ability to select the right drop size for the specific job e.g.: label, billboard or point of sale material. 3. The ability to adjust drop size, and therefore drop volume according to the media being used (i.e. coated or uncoated paper, card, vinyl, plastics, etc). 4. Flexibility to handle a wide range of inks and functional fluids to suit a variety of applications. 5. Minimal and efficient ink usage for optimal cost-per-copy. 6. Future-proofing through in-built flexibility to adapt to new media, applications and customer demands. Choosing a variable drop based system may enable you to address new markets in future. 7. Industrial strength, high-performance architecture for long life and reliable operation.

Xaar Guide to Single Pass Inkjet Printing

Section 3
Printhead and Drop Formation Options
Range of printheads available to suit range of applications Variable drop printheads critical to ensure commercial quality single pass printing Xaar multi-pulse greyscale printheads produce 1,000 dpi apparent resolution There are a variety of printheads available in the marketplace that offer effectively 3 different drop configurations or 3 different modes of operation. Xaar provides a selection of printheads that offers companies the flexibility to choose the right printhead for the application. XaarDOTTM (Xaar Drop Optimisation Technology) encompasses a range of drop formation options, each with specific features. XaarDOTTM is incredibly flexible in giving customers the choice of what drop size or sizes and consequently the DPI to use for a job, both in terms of image quality and substrate flexibility. By tuning the options, printer manufacturers can produce anything from high quality photographic results for close-up viewing or larger droplets for high speed coverage on billboards or other signage. The choice really is yours and the range of drop sizes means you can manage dot gain to enable printing on a wide variety of media from glossy paper to absorbent materials such as textiles. Drop Formation Options
XaarDOT Name Fixed Drop Drop formation method Binary Mode of Operation Fixed drop size for all jobs.

Selectable Drop

Multi-pulse Binary

Selectable drop size on a per job basis. All drops are the same size throughout the job.

Variable Drop

Multi-pulse Greyscale

Drops are dynamically varied within a job. the maximum number of Greylevels

selected on a per job basis

Xaar Guide to Single Pass Inkjet Printing

1. Fixed Drop (Binary) Typically Binary printheads are used for larger drop applications. Drop size ranges from 3580 picolitre(pl) and produce a lower quality image which is directly related to drop size. These printheads are less sensitive to mechanical artefacts and more forgiving of the print environment. When printing with small drops (small drop binary) it is necessary to print multiple passes to achieve full coverage as it is not practical to get the nozzle density required to get full coverage in a single pass.. This multi-passing degrades small features like small text and fine lines even on printing machines with tight mechanical tolerances. Applications: Outdoor signage/graphics; Building wraps; Vehicle livery; Advertising banners; Coding & Marking and Postal. 2. Selectable Drop (Multi-pulse binary) Selectable drop printheads form drops by multi-pulsing, which allow drop size (which directly effects actual resolution) to be selected per job. You also have the ability to achieve very precise addressability for industrial applications. This formation allows you to fine tune

results through a combination of speed (passes) and quality (level of detail). The ability to optimise speed and quality is dependent on the application. You can also use this approach to tune the drop size to best match the dot gain characteristics of the media. Applications: Indoor to outdoor graphics; Industrial print applications.

3. Variable Drop (Multi-pulse greyscale) With piezoelectric multi-pulse greyscale printing there are basically two approaches to producing different size drops from the inkjet nozzle: either extend the drop growth time to make a bigger drop (6-24pl) or alternatively apply high frequency multi-pulses to grow a drop. Xaar takes the multi-pulse approach, which provides, for example, a 6-42pl drop size range and that is our focus here. Xaars greyscale printheads can generate up to 15 different drop sizes by combining multiple small sub-droplets (e.g. 6pl), fired in quick succession, into the same printed dot. This allows the 360 dpi actual resolution to give results equivalent to 1,000 dpi (sometimes called apparent resolution), but using far fewer nozzles, and this gives results that more closely match the perception of the human eye. The 1000 dpi apparent resolution is directly related to the 6 pl sub-drop size and not the native pitch of the nozzles.

Xaar Guide to Single Pass Inkjet Printing

Variable drop allows you to print with fewer passes and still get full coverage whilst retaining the integrity of fine text and lines. Clearly the lower number of passes you do the better the text and lines. This approach also enables you to reduce the number of passes - down to a single pass if needed. Variable drop formation technology is crucial to successful commercial level single-pass inkjet printing. Image: Comparison of 8 and 16 level variable drop or greyscale Xaar 318 CA2: 8 LEVEL GREYSCALE 6-42 pL Xaar 318 CA2: 16 LEVEL GREYSCALE 6-42 pL

Image reproduced courtesy of TTEC

Xaar Guide to Single Pass Inkjet Printing

Section 4
Quality: Resolution and Shades / Tones
Resolution can mean slightly different things to different people. When talking about resolution here we are referring to the ability to see, or resolve, the individual dots or pixels that make up an image. Pick up your Sunday colour supplement, hold it at arms length and you see a nice colour photograph. Steadily bring it closer to your eyes and you will start to see small patterns in the image. This is the limit of resolution. The point at which you can start to see how the image is made up. The first part of understanding image quality then is to understand viewing distance and the point of resolution for the application. For commercial print and packaging this would typically be in the order of 30cm, a slightly close but comfortable viewing distance. At this distance the viewer shouldnt be able to see how the pixels or dots are made up. In terms of a quality piezoelectric printhead this means that the nozzles need to be closer than 1/300 of an inch or about 70um apart. We refer to this as nozzle pitch and it is the closest that any two dots can be printed. Having established resolution it is necessary to look at tonal range, the number of shades or tones that go into making up a print. In simple terms tonal range is the amount of information in a print. The image right has 2 grey levels, white the paper and black the ink. It is far from pleasing to the eye as you read this article but if you put some distance between your eye and the page it looks better, the further away the better it looks, about 4 foot seems correct. This isnt because of too low a resolution; you cant see the individual dots that make up the image, but lack of information.

360 dpi 2 levels

720 dpi 2 levels

Xaar Guide to Single Pass Inkjet Printing

As each dot is a packet of information, adding more dots in other words by increasing the resolution, goes some way to solving this problem. It is the reason why we all look for highresolution printers to use when printing photographs at home.

360 dpi 6 levels

Its also the reason why this isnt a solution for commercial print application, these printers all have to multi-pass the printhead to make up resolution and are therefore not productive enough for in line commercial application. Xaar Greyscale solves the lack of information problem by varying the size of each ink droplet, which in turn varies the size of dot on the page and therefore the amount of information in each pixel. Even with only 6 grey levels, Xaar 1001 can print up to 16, you can see the difference in print quality. The lack of grain in the background, the subtlety of tone in the wine glass and texture of the tennis balls. Resolution now becomes about addressability, how often in a given area you can place a drop of ink. The important image factor now also becomes about the smallest drop of ink or smallest printed dot on the page. Just how small a dot can you see, at what viewing distance and just how small would you like to print something.

Xaar Guide to Single Pass Inkjet Printing

The chart below maps performance of the human eye against tonal range - expressed as grey bits - and addressability. There is little point in printing above the limits of perception, as the eye simply can not see it. It is simply a limit.

Current screen printing uses 64 tones expressed as 6 bits, effectively 64 different drop sizes at approximately 175 lines per inch to try to match the performance of the eye. Binary 600 dpi performance is plotted in green and falls short of the eye and traditional printing techniques at normal viewing distance. 8 level greyscale at 360 DPI almost exactly matches the performance of the human eye to deliver pleasing high quality print results with fine detail and smooth tonal gradations.

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Utilising its smallest drop size and the ability to use multiple drop sizes anywhere within the print dynamically variable greyscale can further enhance fine text detail by filling in the pixels a binary print would leave behind to create a smooth even edge to each character.

3 drop sizes combined to prevent character pixelation and

Image reproduced courtesy of TTEC

create a more refined edge to the text

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Section 5
Single Pass Printing: Technology Requirements
Wide range of sub-drops required to vary dot size pixel by pixel to achieve a true greyscale effect Acoustic wave firing technique to achieve high frequency multipulse sub-drops Six to eight greyscale levels needed for quality single pass application. To successfully reproduce a true greyscale image it is necessary to vary the dot size pixel-bypixel. The more sub-drops used to make up the final dot the greater the possible tonal range. Small sub-drops are also necessary as the image quality is driven by the smallest drop size not by the dots per inch. Dpi is simply the spacing or pitch of the dots. The ability to vary the drop size within each cell of the matrix is a way of increasing the information content so that less cells are required to simulate a full continuous tone image. The range of possible drop sizes and quality of drop formation are linked to the modulation frequency of the nozzle, the higher the frequency the greater the amount of control. Xaar uses an acoustic wave method to achieve high frequency multi-pulse drop formation. The ability to modify waveforms and so modify the way in which drops are formed allows the printhead to adapt to various fluid behaviours and types. As a result inkjet printing can be finely tuned to suit the particular application. Six to eight levels of greyscale are needed to achieve the high quality, smooth tones, needed for single pass printing applications at 360 DPI. The goal is to print any multiple of sub-drops in any position without restriction

allowing maximum flexibility in creating continuous tones.

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Section 6
How Xaar Variable Drop Technology Works
Innovative Hybrid Side-Shooter (HSSTM) head technology ensures fast and reliable variable drop formation Each inkjet drop fired is dynamically variable producing a wide range of tones Xaar printhead design ensures all nozzles operate at maximum efficiency. End Shooter printheads fire the ink drop out of their nozzle at the end of a long narrow channel. The potential Achilles heel with all end shooter designs is that nozzles can fail, either by particulate blocking or because air bubbles form. wipe/purge maintenance routine to re-prime the nozzles. A failure then requires a

However, Xaars new Hybrid Side-Shooter printhead technology achieves variable drop formation fast and reliably. With HSS the ink flows right past the back of the nozzle. Two acoustic waves moving through the channel meet in the middle and cause pressure changes which fire a drop out of the side of the channel i.e. downwards through the inkjet nozzle. Due to the TF TechnologyTM air or particles are moved away from the nozzles, keeping the channel primed and operational. Any nozzles that are lost due to a knock or impact will quickly self-recover.

The HSSTM action produces multiple 6 pl sub-drops which combine to give a range of drop sizes that go on to form the image on the substrate. Each inkjet drop is dynamically varied by changing the number of sub-drops combined to make up the final drop volume to give a print result that typically contains up to 7 different drop sizes producing a wide range of tones, and hence high print quality.

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One of the important benefits of this multi-pulse variable drop formation is that it minimises satellites, giving a very clean and precise print result. Xaars TF TechnologyTM provides ink through-flow and when combined with the side shooter architecture is a significant step forward towards running inkjet systems reliably for a full shift with minimal maintenance. Printheads with all channels (nozzles) working to their full

potential, gets rid of the need for multi-pass printing typically used to compensate for missing jets. The first single pass, narrow web, inkjet systems are coming onto the market for label and transaction applications. Within a short time we will see reliable fixed arrays built to the full width of the printing area, potentially even for wide format printers, which could run at thousands of square metres per hour. Long printhead lifetime and high native resolution have been available for a long time within Xaars piezoelectric drop-on-demand technology. The combination of shear mode and

shared wall patented technologies has allowed Xaar and our licensees to produce printheads that deliver industrial-strength life. The key active part within a piezo printhead is the actuator and weve operated this beyond 100 million million (1013) actuations with no failure. Duty cycles within typical print applications are currently around 20%, so this typically means over four years of life.

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Section 7
Variable Drop: Quality & Production Benefits
Variable drop produces high quality, high productivity results High value per nozzle as each nozzle behaves as multiple nozzles, prints reliably and has a long lifetime Cost effective cost per copy through efficient ink use. The benefits of variable drop printing are: 1. High quality combined with high productivity: image quality is improved even at low native nozzle pitches. For example 360 dpi appears like 1000+ dpi from a binary printhead (apparent resolution) when using 8 greyscale levels at normal viewing distances. 2. Image resolution and quality required by industrial print markets Smooth gradation and tonal range: Smoother screening with linear drop volume increments Sharp text and lines produced by the range of drop sizes Larger (40+pl) drops to ensure excellent image saturation and coverage Allows fine tuning to accommodate media dot gain characteristics.

3. Reduced cost per copy & reduced over-wetting of the substrate by minimising ink usage. 4. Fast drying: the minimum amount of fluid is used when using multiple drop sizes. This minimises excess solvent or carrier which in turn means minimal drying time and cuts solvent use. 5. 6-level greyscale (0-5 dpd) is equivalent to 5 densities of CMYK. 6. Eliminates the need for Light Cyan, Light Magenta and Light Black (Grey): a full size drop of light ink can effectively be replaced with a smaller full-strength drop. The resolution (determined by the smallest drop size) is enhanced as the smallest drop is now effectively 30-40% of the original drop size.

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7. Increased value per nozzle: So the reality is that you get a much higher value per nozzle each nozzle effectively behaves as multiple nozzles e.g. 7 if 7dpd again, same cost per nozzle but effectively 7x the number of nozzles per inch to get the same coverage. This could be up to 15 times. All these benefits combine to produce better image quality without the overhead and cost of multiple nozzles. Variable drop capability combined with reliability and printhead lifetime are all important to reach the levels of productivity required for industrial markets such as commercial print, transactional print and packaging.

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Section 8
Commercial Applications
Some examples of single pass inkjet systems: Nilpeter Caslon: Narrow web label print module Sun Chemical SolarJet: Short run, narrow-web label UV printer EFI Jetrion 4000: Narrow web UV label printer. Single pass inkjet printing is already becoming a reality. Here are some examples of singlepass printing machines, some using Xaar TF Technology and all using variable drop printing in a fixed head mode. The key is combining quality and reliability performance for the enduse application. Nilpeter Caslon print module Nilpeter, of Denmark, one of the worlds leading narrow web label press manufacturers, and FFEI Ltd. (formerly FujiFilm Electronic Imaging) of the UK have jointly developed Caslon, a modular digital print solution for labels and narrow web packaging using 4-colour process UV inkjet technology. The first commercially available product is in 330 mm (13in) and 420 mm (16in) web widths, with 508 mm (20in) and 559 mm (22in) available later. Caslon uses the latest Xaar 1001 printheads integrated into a digital print engine by FFEI, one of the launch partners for the Xaar 1001 product. Modular in design, Caslon can be

integrated into Nilpeters conventional flexo press lines, or can function as a stand alone roll-to-roll system. In the former

configuration, Caslons speed matches that of conventional print units. Consumer trends towards limited-run special offers, short-term marketing initiatives and multiple language variants are driving label and packaging manufacturers to look for alternative production methods. Caslon enables the commercially viable output of such

shorter runs and fits into a printing company's total workflow solution.

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Sun Chemical SolarJet SolarJet, Sun Chemical's latest generation UV inkjet printer designed specifically to benefit the growing short-run, narrow-web labels market, was launched at Labelexpo (Sept 2007). Built in

partnership with Imaging Technology International (iTi) of Colorado, USA, one of Xaars integrator partners, SolarJet allows printers to produce shorter print runs quickly, cost effectively and without sacrificing quality. This printer is targeted at the pharmaceutical, health and beauty,

industrial, electronics and FMCG markets where printed products are now being updated more and more frequently and commercially viable run lengths need to be shorter to avoid costly wastage. The SolarJet is equipped with Xaar 760 printheads and the press can print at a speed of up to 25 metres (80 linear feet) per minute.

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EFI Jetrion 4000 EFI, the global printing group based in the US, unveiled the Jetrion 4000 last year and it was shown in full production at LabelExpo Europe 2007. The

Jetrion 4000 Series of UV inkjet printers offers narrow web converters an affordable, full-colour alternative to toner-based printers. Printers can now harness lower running costs, superior production capabilities, and have the flexibility of inkjet technology for applications such as labels, tags, forms and tickets. The Jetrion 4000 uses Xaar printhead technology with greyscale capability, which allows it to print photographic quality.

In action commercial printing In the commercial print space there are machines producing office print, CDs, packaging and many more will be launched in the near future. The Riso Office HC 5000 series printers uses Xaar technology in a single pass mode to produce 115 A4 pages per minute using a special oil based ink; Copytrax produce CD printers using UV inks through the Xaar 318 greyscale printheads. Applications for page-wide HSS arrays could include imprinters that can keep up with high speed web offset, flexo or gravure print lines, with higher quality than todays systems, or complete digital colour presses like the Nilpeter Caslon.

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Section 9
Summary
Historically there has been a trade off between speed and quality. Variable drop improves this by combining high image quality with high productivity for the first time. High productivity in multi pass applications is largely achieved by reducing the number of passes necessary for a given quality level. In this guide we have described the requirements and wide-ranging benefits of variable drop. The key with single pass printing is the ability to achieve full coverage in just one pass. The beauty of variable drop is that you can achieve the high image quality with fine detail and good text you need combined with the productivity benefits of sheet or web fed production. Once these are in place, the true potential of inkjet printing can be exploited: high quality full colour variable data printing for personalised marketing, transactional and version applications and high-speed, short run production.

Contact Us
Mark Alexander Xaar Plc Science Park Cambridge CB4 OXR Tel: +44 (0)1223 423663 Fax: +44 (0)1223 423590 Email: info@xaar.com Web: www.xaar.com

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