Epson UK will aim to launch more than 10 new inkjet printers for a range of professional print applications over the next 18 months.
This programme is part of the company’s strategy to deliver a comprehensive choice of affordable, high-quality print solutions to commercial, signage, décor, label, textile and photo print specialists.
The rate of new product launches will continue and by 2016 Epson will offer over 33 professional production printers with dedicated Epson inks to the label and packaging, sign and display, production photo and textile markets.
‘Epson’s strategy is quite simple – but very ambitious,’ said Phil McMullin, sales manager ProGraphics. ‘We want to provide the market with the best combination of printer and ink technology to deliver high quality, superb reliability and the best all round return on investment for the broadest range of professional print applications.’
The company spends £1.2 million a day on R&D which is driving innovation and new technology, ink and product development for consumer, business, professional print, government, medical, finance and retail markets across the world.
The core of Epson’s print technology is the Micro Piezo inkjet printhead and the company has set its sights on realising the true potential of its Micro Piezo printhead technology. To achieve the high-speed, high-quality, high-reliability, and high-efficiency printing demanded by the commercial print industry, it was necessary to develop the thinnest possible piezo element for maximum control over drop size. The result was the 2007 launch of Epson Thin Film Piezo (TFP). Since then, TFP has been Epson’s flagship technology for large-format printers, where fine image quality is required to create graphics with outstanding detail, colour expression, and increased productivity.
Last year, Epson took another leap forward in the evolution of its thin-film piezo technology with the launch of PrecisionCore. The Micro TFP doubles the piezo element’s flexing power, allowing further miniaturisation and scalability opening up new possibilities for fluid handling and substrate compatibility. The modular PrecisionCore chips can be combined in different ways to build a variety of high-performance printheads, from lineheads for industrial presses to serial printheads for desktop printers.
Over the last two years alone, the company has introduced 10 professional print products under the ‘Sure’ brand. These have opened up important new markets for Epson and brought new levels of quality and versatility to the industry. These include Epson’s first single-pass digital label press and UV technology, the SurePress L-6034V, its first mini dry photolabs, the SureLab range, its first signage/POS wide-format printers, the SureColor SC-S range, its first dye sublimation printers, the SureColor SC-F range, its first direct-to-garment textile printer, the SureColor SC-F2000, and a new generation of aqueous display graphics printers the SureColor SC-T range.
