Xaar Aims To Remove Barriers To Inkjet's Adoption

"The digital printing revolution will continue to gather pace through 2005 and beyond but probably with a small or even silent 'r'," said Ian Dinwoodie, the chief executive officer of Xaar.

"The digital printing revolution will continue to gather pace through 2005 and beyond but probably with a small or even silent 'r'," said Ian Dinwoodie, the chief executive officer of Xaar.

He commented that 2004 saw several milestones in Xaar's development of inkjet technology, including the launch of the first applications using the company's greyscale printheads and its agreement with litho press manufacturer MAN Roland to develop inkjet systems to be used in offset printing presses.

He continued to highlight some of Xaar's proposed developments for this year.

"Our mission in 2005 and beyond is to continue to grow by removing the barriers to inkjet adoption by directly addressing the 'we cannot use inkjet because' arguments.

As we continue to develop the technology the benefits of inkjet are now more widely appreciated than ever before and we aim to continue to help machine developers take advantage of the flexibility and versatility of inkjet technology.

We will double the number of printheads in our range during the year, offering the widest choice of industrial printheads on the market," he said.

He added that he expected continued growth in the company's existing markets, which included the outdoor advertising and product identification industries and that Xaar's greyscale technology would enable the company to penetrate the high quality, high-resolution indoor market.

At the same time, he added that the company would start volume commercial deliveries to Agfa during the year.

In terms of new market sectors, Dinwoodie commented: "We will accelerate our business development activities within the packaging and industrial fields.

Significant R and D activities are underway with numerous partners across fields as diverse as electronics, displays, labelling and coating.

We would hope to see commercial product releases in a number of these applications from 2006 onwards." He said that he anticipated that a number of issues would drive the future development of inkjet printheads, with increases in speed, jet-reliability, image quality and resolution at the centre of the future success of the technology.

Dinwoodie continued: "The ability to handle various industrial fluids will become critical to wider application.

As more and more companies recognise the true versatility of inkjet as a non-contact, substrate-variable printing method, the need for robust printheads that deliver optimum results will be key in the adoption of inkjet for new applications and in new sectors.

We are already fulfilling those needs in the development of the Omnidot and Leopard and we will continue to expand our product range into 2005 and beyond.".

Back to top