Cambridge – Xaar, the leading inkjet printing technology Group, has launched its revolutionary printhead – the Xaar Aquinox – delivering exceptional reliability, creativity, and sustainability for printing aqueous fluids.
The Aquinox is the latest development from Xaar’s ImagineX platform, and its revolutionary aQ Power Technology provides a radically new approach to how water-based fluids are jetted reliably, delivering a truly transformational industrial printhead.
Xaar’s aQ Power is a combination of ground-breaking technologies designed to optimise the Aquinox’s lifespan and robustness when handling aqueous fluids. This includes a redesign of the internal architecture, new water-compatible materials, and an innovative drive system that allows for maximum drop ejection. This, together with Xaar’s TF Technology ink recirculation, ensures the Aquinox delivers significantly increased nozzle open time compared to typical aqueous printheads.
Water-based inkjet printing has never been more effective or versatile thanks to the Xaar Aquinox’s unique technologies, exceptional print speeds and compatibility with multiple aqueous fluid types. You can achieve speeds of more than 100 m/min. The Xaar Aquinox’s high native resolution of 720-dpi and high firing frequency of 48kHz allow for high fluid laydown and maximum productivity. And with Xaar’s High Laydown Technology the drop size capability is extended, making the Aquinox ideal for printing textiles, highly absorbent substrates, or thick film coatings.
Thanks to Xaar’s Ultra High Viscosity Technology the Aquinox is capable of jetting fluid viscosities of up to 100cP. The Xaar Aquinox is capable of bringing new creative designs to life by allowing fluids to have a wider color gamut, larger particles, and more pigment.
The Xaar Aquinox is able to work with the most recent aqueous inks, which not only gives users the creativity and impact they desire but also allows them to future-proof their businesses in a more sustainable way. Xaar’s technology and its chevron architecture provides a very energy efficient operation, reducing the power required for printheads, printers and end users alike. In addition, the Aquinox’s improved nozzle open time and latency reduces maintenance and ink waste, helping to minimise the total cost of ownership for users.
John Mills, CEO of Xaar, said: “The introduction of the Xaar Aquinox, powered by our ImagineX platform, is our most significant product launch in recent years.
“The Aquinox demonstrates our commitment to driving the future of inkjet into new and ever more sustainable applications, and we are proud of this revolutionary transformation in aqueous inkjet printing.”
Supported by the robust and proven Hydra ink supply system, with its ‘plug and print’ capability and easy to use, intuitive user interface each Xaar Aquinox printhead is easily integrated into new print machines.
The Aquinox includes a development kit to give OEMs all the tools they need to get started. This includes the ink supply and printhead drive electronics.
The Xaar Aquinox has been developed in close collaboration with top manufacturers and developers of aqueous inkjetink inks. This allows for the Xaar Aquinox to handle both dye-based fluids and pigmented inks in a variety of applications.
John concluded: “The Aquinox seamlessly combines all Xaar’s proven technologies and innovations into a truly transformational and reliable aqueous printhead, providing a real step change in reliable aqueous inkjet printing.
“From textiles to ceramics and packaging, we see the Xaar Aquinox breaking new ground, enabling new water-based print applications, many of which were previously not possible with inkjet.
“The Xaar Aquinox will revolutionise aqueous printing, helping to deliver a world where you can truly print anything you imagine.”