Did you know that inkjet technology can print skin? How about electronic circuitry? Did you know that billboards are printed as a single piece on 16′ wide inkjets? Since its invention in the 70’s, the inkjet has been pushed to do things never thought possible. And now there are companies about to make the next big push in speed, up to 130x faster than their predecessors.

What Changed?

In 2005 Brother Industries and Kyocera demonstrated a prototype printer capable of 170 full-color photo-quality 8.5″ x 11″ prints per minute. Memjet, another company spearheading this new inkjet technology, demonstrated a large-format printer capable of 1 linear foot per second! At 52″ wide that’s 15,600 square feet per hour! For comparison, some previous-generation large format printers output 2 linear feet per minute (at high quality), or 120 square feet per hour. That’s a 130 times increase in throughput.

The new family of inkjet printers being researched have no moving print heads. Instead they have one long print head (pictured) that spans the entire media. For example, a letter-sized printer has an 8.9″ wide print head that covers the paper from side-to-side. This enables previously impossible speeds — 170 full color pages per minute at 1600dpi.

Memjet’s version of this technology is scalable: add another controller chip and you can either double the print speed or double the width of the printable area.

What it means…

When this technology makes it out of the laboratory and into industry you can bet large-format prints will become more commonplace. Simply using large prints wont be enough to attract consumers’ attention from the din. Everything, including banners and posters, will have to be part of the larger experience that the consumer is taken through.

Some specific changes that this technology will bring about:

• Large prints will become more of a commodity, less of a specialty item. Cost per print will fall.
• Variable-data opportunities will increase. Content can be changed based on location and/or target audience.
• Large-format printing will become more of an on-demand service. Individual posters and banners will have a shorter life since the imagery and message they cary can be updated so rapidly.

Summary

Faster, less expensive, and more on-demand prints are on their way. They are fueling a move towards experiential marketing. Imagine everything from full-color coupons, business cards, posters, and tradeshow graphics printed moments before they are needed, incorporating the latest news, trends, and memes.

Businesses in tune with these subtle changes in the market will capture new opportunities. Those adept enough will take advantage of subtle shifts, short-lived trends, and powerful micro-niches.

More Information

• Demonstration of new inkjet technology
• Memjet - developer of new inkheads
• Experiential Marketing