Press Centre

Last week at FESPA 2005, the first two commercial machines containing Xaar’s new platform OmniDot 760 printhead, co-developed with Agfa, were demonstrated on the Agfa stand, as part of Agfa’s strategy to lead the industrial inkjet market. Both the M-Press digital/screen hybrid press, developed by Agfa and Thieme, and the Anapurna 100 flatbed UV system, developed by Agfa and Mutoh, incorporate the Xaar OmniDot 760 printhead, referred to as UPH by Agfa. These machines have been brought to market on schedule and were well-received by the FESPA audience, with the printhead’s capability to offer maximum productivity and flexibility recognised as central to market requirements, demonstrating the commercial success that inkjet technology can offer.

The OmniDot 760 printhead is based on greyscale technology, and contains 764 nozzles. Initial variants are the GS3 with a drop size range of 3 - 12 pico litres, and the GS8 covering 8 – 40 pico litres. Other options may be implemented dependent on specific application requirements. The printhead is designed for high-resolution, high-quality photographic and graphics applications, with a print resolution of 720dpi and an apparent resolution of 1440dpi.

“We have a multi-year strategic agreement with Agfa for joint research, development and manufacturing of inkjet technologies, and are very pleased with the significant progress made with the development of the new OmniDot platform,” said Ian Dinwoodie, Xaar’s CEO. “These printheads are the most sophisticated products yet developed by Xaar and represent a major change in the capability of inkjet performance, with significantly improved accuracy and resolution. Early testing of the OmniDot platform with other potential OEM customers has generated very positive feedback.”

Comments Agfa’s vice-president of Imaging Solutions, Jan Van Daele: “Our agreement with Xaar is helping us to realise our goal of becoming a leader in the industrial inkjet market, and has greatly assisted us in focusing on innovations to support the Power of Print. Xaar’s expertise and knowledge of inkjet technology is invaluable to us, and we look forward to continuing a fruitful relationship.”

For more information on OmniDot, please visit www.xaar.co.uk.

About Xaar
Xaar plc is a market-leading ink jet technology company. It targets the world’s office, commercial and industrial printing markets. The office printing market is approached through Xaar’s licensees; the industrial printing market is targeted by XaarJet, the manufacturing arm of Xaar; and a combination of partners and key players work with Xaar to serve the commercial printing market. Vivid Print Innovations, the applications division of Xaar, provides Xaar’s in-house specialist integration service.   

For more information, please contact:

Alex Challinor, Xaar plc
T: +44 (0)1223 423663
achallinor@xaar.co.uk
www.xaar.co.uk

Laura French
T: +44 (0)1372 464470
lfrench@adcomms.co.uk