Memjet: 60 Pages Per Minute

In the amount of time it will take you to read this piece, a printer powered by Memjet (memjet.com) technologies—technologies including the printhead, controller, software, and proprietary water-based, four-color ink—is capable of printing more than 60 pages. While some people might be thinking to themselves that they have a laser printer that can produce 60 pages per minute, it is likely that those are 60 pages without color. Add color and cut the number of pages in half. Memjet office printers can provide 1,600 x 800 dpi resolution at the 60 page-per-minute rate.

The Memjet high-speed color printing technology is said to be “protected by more than 3,000 global patents.” And Memjet isn’t in the business of producing printers but of providing the printing tech that can be deployed by manufacturers. In January, 2011, for example, Lenovo (lenovo.com) and Memjet announced a partnership; the Chinese computer company—you may recall IBM sold its PC business to it—will be rolling out printers to the Chinese market with the tech.

A key to the capability is that it has a high-density, page-wide—8.77-in.—printhead. Each printhead consists of 11 integrated circuit chips. Each chip, which measures 20 mm, has 6,400 print nozzles. A nozzle structure is 31.7 microns across. The nozzles fire drop sizes ranging from 1 to 2 picoliters; the standard setup is set to 1.4-picoliter drops, which result in a 14-micron drop diameter. A total printhead has 70,400 nozzles. So with that, the printhead, which is stationary, can accurately apply up to 700 million drops per second.

In addition to speed, the company says that printers based on this technology can be simpler, as there is no need for special paper handling.