Construction of a new factory at Akita Epson, a group company of Seiko Epson, has been completed, tripling the company’s future printhead production capacity.
Work on the new factory in the Akita Prefecture commenced in the final quarter of 2022 and following a year of work and an investment of around 3.5 billion yen (c£20 million), construction has been completed adjacent to the existing Akita Epson factory. The additional space will be used to manufacture and assemble PrecisionCore MicroTFP inkjet printheads, with the investment made to ensure that Epson has enough production space to meet predicted future growth in demand.
The company has stated that demand for commercial and industrial inkjet printers is increasing, ‘along with a technology shift from analogue to digital in sectors where the printing media is not paper’. Currently, about 20% of Epson’s inkjet printers are equipped with PrecisionCore printheads, but this percentage is expected to increase.
The expanded Akita Epson factory will also enable Epson to strengthen its product lineup and expand printhead sales to third parties, with a view to increasing the supply of inkjet printers equipped with PrecisionCore MicroTFP printheads. By consolidating PrecisionCore MicroTFP printhead production at Akita Epson, the company aims to maximise efficiency. In addition, production equipment and processes are arranged to further increase human productivity and space productivity. For example, the new facility has a newly designed, optimal layout wherein Epson robots and other equipment will be arranged in islands. By using an island design, Epson is targeting an increase in production efficiency of 30% on a high-throughput production line.
As a production site with ‘premier’ technological capabilities, Akita Epson closely collaborates with Epson’s research and development centres in Japan. Moreover, it shares the advanced production technology and know-how it gains through the production of core devices with Epson’s overseas production sites to improve the group’s overall manufacturing capabilities.
