Inkjet digital printing specialist Durst and printhead expert Ricoh Europe have agreed a €50 million deal to extend their successful printhead technology collaboration.
Durst already uses Ricoh Gen 5 inkjet printheads in its Alpha textile printing systems and P5 series machines for large format printing. As part of this new deal, in future Ricoh printheads will be further developed for upcoming Durst printing systems for various fields of application. The technical expertise and teams of both Ricoh and Durst will come together for the development of new inkjet digital printing options through the development of printheads and printers, to open up potential for inkjet technology to address the needs of emerging applications. As an example, new ways to use inkjet technologies and materials for enhanced sustainability – for example lower drying energy consumption – are already being explored. Further collaborative initiatives will be revealed in the coming months.
Dr Christian Compera, global general manager, Industrial Print at Ricoh, said, ‘The partnership will allow us to develop our printheads in a more focused way with real-world requirements. Often there can be a high level of protectiveness surrounding printhead intellectual property, materials and printhead production technologies as well as ink formulations. By bringing together the Ricoh and Durst development teams, we share the goal of continuously improving the entire printing system, which ultimately benefits customers.’
Durst Group CEO and co-owner Christoph Gamper added, ‘This deal reaffirms and continues a collaborative approach with Ricoh. Extending our partnership with Ricoh enables us to achieve a faster time-to-market for new printing systems, as we work together on the perfect interaction of printheads inks and substrates. Not only does this allow us to achieve maximum print quality and performance but also to guarantee reliability for extended printer life. It gives our customers a clear basis for their investment decisions, without the risk factor of the printhead.’
Read the April 2022 issue of Digital Labels & Packaging for more on developments in printheads, and the latest on inkjet digital printing technology; register here to receive the magazine
