UPDATED 2010: New inkjet printer technology that analysts believe will revolutionize the imaging industry was unveiled today by secretive Silverbrook Research.
The company has released astounding videos* of desktop, photo and wide-format printers that print pages and photos 5 to 10 times faster than products from current printer market leaders HP, Canon, Epson and Lexmark.
“This thing is gigantic, we've been in this business for 20 years and I've never seen something as mind boggling,” says Charles LeCompte, president of leading printer market analysis firm, Lyra Research.
“The technology will be available in products in late 2007, starting with a 100mm printhead that will be used for home and retail photo printing as well as label printing devices. An A4/Letter printhead will be available in 2008 with many different components and technology improvements planned for the future,” the company announced today.
HP, Canon and other printer manufacturers are described as "potential customers", by Memjet Technology, the main company established by Silverbrook to market and license the technology. The company expects the printers to eventually cost $200 or less, sources say.
See also our latest opinion article, 'Is Silverbrook's Memjet printer a hoax?' for a discussion of some of the arguments from people who believe these demonstrations could be faked, and a peek at some of the remarkable technology that Silverbrook Research claims will enable a printing revolution (page will open in new window).
The cheap A4 desktop printer with a color printing speed of 60 pages per minute shown in this video is just one of the revolutionary new devices promised by Silverbrook, a company which holds more than 1400 patents, but has never released a product. The video was released today by Memjet Technology. Analysts from leading printer market research firm, Lyra Research Inc say they have personally examined prototypes of the desktop printers and verified that they work as Silverbrook claims
Other products that Silverbrook says will be made possible by the new technology are a $150, desktop photo printer that prints 30 photos per minute. This is more than 10 times faster than all existing desktop products, and 2 to 3 times faster than the speediest competitor, HP's new Edgeline printer, which is not available in a retail product for ordinary consumers.
HP's competing printer costs $16,000
While Edgeline could be the closest competitor to Memjet in terms of speed, it appears to be far more expensive.
The only HP Edgeline printer announced for sale on the open market, the multifunction CM8050, costs $16,000 according to HP, and $21,000 according to a retail outlet which advertises the printer as 'available in the near future'.
In fact, a spare paper tray for the HP edgeline printer currently costs more than $2,000 - ten times the $200 analysts say is possible for Silverbrook's desktop inkjet printer (Silverbrook itself says only that the price will be under $300). It is not clear when the HP CM8050 will be available, as HP has removed the product page from its website recently.
(Update March 30: Since this story was written, HP staff have contacted Texyt to inform us that the company has not officially announced pricing for the Edgeline series. We await further clarification from HP)
Silverbrook's assault on the market
In almost 3500 patent applications over the past decade, Silverbrook has described an incredible array of potential products. These include a full colour printer module small enough to fit into a mobile phone, digital camera or even into handheld games like the Sony PSP or Nintendo DS. Silverbrook's working prototype of this miniature color inkjet printing module is shown here in this low-quality snapshot.
Other patents describe large scale printers to print wallpaper and textiles. According to Lyra Research, Silverbrook believes the radical technology can scale from handheld devices right up to huge commercial printing presses that could print magazines and books.
The desktop printers as described by Silverbrook have a “price/performance ratio that is off the charts”, says Steve Hoffenberg of Lyra Research.
Low printing cost claimed
Silverbrook has forecast printing costs for the 60 page per minute desktop printer at below $0.02 for black text, and under $0.06 for color pages (with 20 percent ink coverage), according to Lyra Research, which had early access to prototypes.
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The desktop printer's individual color ink cartridges hold 50ml of ink, an almost unprecedented amount in a consumer product, and will sell for less than $20 each, the company predicts. Most existing inkjet printers from companies like Epson use ink cartridges with a capacity of about 10ml, and prices of $15 to $30.
"Silverbrook expect costs of ink and media supplies will be pushing new lows. They're not looking to subsidize their costs with high ink prices, instead they want more of a balance," says Steve Hoffenberg, Lyra's director of consumer imaging research
The privately-held company has not disclosed the identities of investors, but states that "No existing printer company has any stake in the Memjet Companies".
Analysts have suggested that Silverbrook could license its technology to outsiders who are trying to break into the printer market. Dell, which already has a printer business, but owns little of the technology behind it, is one name that has been mentioned.
Radical new technology
The ultra fast speed of the printers is partly due to their 'pagewidth' format. Unlike conventional inkjets, the printhead spans the full width of the paper and does not need to shuttle from side to side. The A4 or letter-size desktop printer's printhead is a full 8 inches (21.3 cm) wide and contains 70,400 ink nozzles. This microscope photo shows a tiny section of the print head - each of the small white circles is a single ink nozzle.
The ink nozzles are arranged in lines, with 1600 nozzles per inch. These can produce more than 2.5 million ink dots per square inch of paper in a single pass. (The screen you are reading this story on has approximately 10,000 dots per square inch). These tiny nozzles can fire out ink droplets smaller than one picoliter (one millionth of a millionth of a liter). This produces tremendously sharp prints, say analysts.
The very small size of the ink droplets is important, because it helps the ink dry in less than a second. This is a critical factor in high speed printing without smudging.
The printhead is made up in four-inch units. These are themselves assembled from smaller pieces, 20 mm long, which are built using a semiconductor fabrication process, similar to that used to make CPUs and graphics chips. The photograph on the right, shows an 8-inch silicon wafer on which these 20 mm print head sections are visible
Please refer to Texyt.com's exclusive first article on Silverbrook Research and its Memjet technology for background information on Silverbrook Research and its founder, Australian inventor, Kia Silverbrook, and a look at some of the patents behind the invention.
See this article for more on Memjet, including its predicted disruptive effect on the printer industry
Can this remarkable technology actually succeed in the market? See also our look at Memjet's print quality, intellectual property issues, and competition from HP's Edgeline.
*Update April 2: Since this story was written, Memjet Technologies has removed the video of the wide format printer from its website. The company also removed another video which showed all three of its prototypes, including the wide format printer. Videos of the other two protoypes, the A4/Letter printer and the photo printer remain on the site.
Update May 28: Memjet has now added a new video of its wide format printer prototype to its website, replacing the original video which was removed. Part of this video segment is shown at the end of the video sequence displayed on this page. The printer and adjacent workstation appear identical to those in the original video - as far as can be ascertained in a low quality video of this nature.
Update Aug 2008: Despite maintaining their customary low profile, Silverbrook and Memjet have been recruiting numerous engineers with experience of MEMs and other areas that are related to Memjet during the past year. Hiring has been in Asia and Australia, with an emphasis on practical manufacturing experience. We've removed the predicted year from the title of this article because development of the mass-market version of the printer is obviously behind the schedule given by Silverbrook last year.
Update Nov 2008: According to recent statements by Memjet representatives, the company's high-speed A4/Letter page-width printhead is expected to be ready by the end of 2008. A printer based on this is expected to be announced in early 2009 by another vendor. Memjet is predicting a price as low as $300 for this product - though the company notes that the price will be set by the printer vendor. If these predictions prove accurate, the first consumer-oriented Memjet printer will be released approximately one year later than initially forecast.
Update July 2009: Since this article was originally published, Memjet has put back the launch of products several times. While Silverbrook and Memjet have been characteristically shy of talking about internal activity, recruitment ads and other sources reveal that the company has been hiring numerous engineering staff and other employees worldwide during this period.
The most recent news from the company, as of mid-2009, is that no commercial availability is expected until 2010. Memjet is not manufacturing or selling printers itself, but is supplying components to other manufacturers. According to the company: after unexpected delays, almost all problems with the Memjet printheads and other components have been sorted out, but partners' ramping up to mass production is now also taking longer than expected. The first products expected on the market are desktop printers aimed at small businesses.
Memjet has not named any of the companies that will use the technology. However, Videos on the Memjet Home and Office website which compare competing products unfavorably with Memjet technologies include HP, Samsung, Canon, Xerox and Brother - suggesting that Memjet is not partnering with any of these companies, as it would be unlikely to criticize a business partner's products. Notably these comparisons make no mention of Epson, one of the world's largest printer manufacturers (other notable printer makers or vendors not mentioned include Kodak, Lexmark, Dell, Oki Data, Ricoh).
Other announcements from Memjet make clear that, in a break with current industry practice, a key feature of some or all of its home and office printers will be refillable ink cartridges.
Update Feb 2010: Memjet is now expecting products on the market in the second half of 2010, with office printers appearing first, followed later by cheaper products aimed at ordinary consumers. The company has hired tech industry heavyweight, Len Lauer, as its new CEO. Lauer provided the new product release schedule in interviews. Lauer was formerly COO at Qualcomm and prior to that held the same position at Sprint Nextel.
Ink Blockages
I admit, now I'm impressed. All the same, I'm curious to know how the will handle the problem of the ink drying up and blocking the printhead. With such small nozzles, it could be that they will get blocked more easily
memjet ink blockages
Interesting thought. But if they can do what they have done do you not think they have already thought of that solution. To spend what they must have spent to develop this, they would not release it only to be blocked by such a simple question as will the ink dry up. Come on world let's embrace the new thinkers and get a positive attitude.
your fast printer
I am interest to use your photo printer as a Medical imaging printer for ultrasound ,C Arm Xray ,today we use Sony dye sub technology that need 67-75 second to print a Polaroid size color printer. I am a medical equipment Prosduct specialist ,If you interested I will give you input to make your printer a Medical device Printer
Santana Medika
Vancouver,Canada
Thats a good point. If i had
Thats a good point. If i had to guess, I'd say they'll probably do what the newer HPs do, which is run ink from the cartridges quickly through the print head, then suck it back into the cartridge. On the other hand, clearly this company has a few tricks up their sleeves that HP can't touch, and I wouldn't be surprised if they had some new impressive technology that eliminates that problem, though that seems improbable.
Indeed, this is great, but
Indeed, this is great, but as Larry was saying, how are they going to solve this problems, because, frankly, they can't appear on the market with the same problem. I just can't wait to see how it will work this time.
Yes... But....
Don't you just friggin want one? That has to be the coolest thing I've seen in a while. At first I thought it was just feeding already printed images and it could of been an April fools joke. Nope. 22 March. Unless someones a bit eager and it really is an April fools joke.
Wow
I don't consider myself one who needs any form of serious printer but this printer is awesome. If it were only $200 I would buy it, for my office, in a heartbeat.
printer
I think this printer would really awesome. Its price is just 200$, and its great use in daily office work. I also require a printer for my office work. Can you tell me, from where you purchase this printer? ____________________________________________________ jerry cheap printer ink
Printers already print using
Printers already print using picolitres; that is not a new technology. It will have no greater chance of clogging than any other of today's offerings.
With 70k nozzles, I'd say
With 70k nozzles, I'd say that the opportunity for a nozzle to get plugged is significantly greater than with a standard inkjet printer. The chance for any one nozzle to plug is the same as any one nozzle on a standard inkjet.
Now, if the get one out that does duplex printing, I'll get rid of my laser printer.
You're assuming the chances
You're assuming the chances of clogging are the same, but you have nothing to base that on. Maybe they've refined the technology to the point they haven't had a clog in years. The fact is, you don't know and neither do I. We'll just have to wait and see. So a statistical analysis based on ink drop size is worthless.
wrong
More nozzles does not necessarily mean more chance for a clog. You have to factor in that each nozzle will be used less as well, but that could be an issue in itself that there is more time in each nozzles lack of use for them to clog. Like others have said, they've probably thought of that.
If the machine is only going
If the machine is only going to cost around $200 then a replacement section of print head at a service agent shouldnt cost a great deal!
I cant imagine that a company with the planning and creativity that they appear to possess would not have designed a way of keeping the nozzles clean and clear.
I cant wait to see more of this.
@LarryTWorth You really
@LarryTWorth
You really think they haven't solved that pathetic problem yet? ROFLMAO
Memjet Printers
Your expecting all kinds of problems from a printer that none of us has had our hands on yet. From what I have read about this inventor, he has his head on right and he is thinking about things that you and I would never dream about. For my money I'm sure he has forseen all these problems with jets clogging and missaligned paper and low ink indicators. If it works even half as good as it did on the video it will be well worth 200 dollars and if he can keep the cost of the ink cartridges down below 20 dollars a pop, WHO AMONG US is going to complain.
I have a Lexmark printer that I use at home, it cost me around 60 dollars, a black ink cartridge cost me about 30 dollars and a color cost about 45 dollars and they last me about 3 months. If I can get my hands on one of these printers and pay less than 20 dollars for an ink cartridge that will last my almost a year or more, I'm sold, I'll get one and I will never look at a lexmark or Epson or Dell or even an HP printer again.
Amazing, but it still is an inkjet. Inkjet prints bleed when wet
Now, if it was not water based ink but alcohol based or something else that is going to be a little better fixed, Id be happy. That's the ONE area where dye sublimation and laser printers are better.
This is the first inkjet in years that I would consider buying, however.
Re: Inkjet prints bleed when wet
This is not true. The best of current inkjets cope quite well with wet prints. This new technology, using much smaller ink droplets, is reputed to dry almost instantly. Apparently there is no possibility of bleeding. Look it up.
Ricoh Gelsprinter printers
Ricoh Gelsprinter printers can handle more moisture, text markers and stuff like that much better than regular ink printers.
I think the Memjet will work fine in an office printer because they are more or less in continuous use. The ink does not have time to dry in the nozzles.
We used to have a large MFC doing 95% of all of our printing needs. We then fitted the small desktop printers with RIHACs ink system. Now the small ink printers stands for 60% of all printing. They are still slow - so larger jobs are sent to the MFC.
If the Memjet could be fitted with a RIHAC system of continuous ink of some sort - they would cover all our needs apart from the finishing options the larger MFC can offer. Folding, punching, binding etc.
Great, but...
...will there be open source drivers for it?
I see no proof that this
I see no proof that this printer is even printing these photos. They could easily be feeding pre printed photos thru at high speeds...
huh?
why is it so hard to believe, its not new technology.
all they've effectively done is found a cheaper way to put the printer head across the entire page.
effectively its as if HP/Canon/Epson etc. put 10 print heads stuck together instead of a moveable head. their printers would be quick
good to see small companies like this giving value for money, vs the milk the consumer mentality of HP/Canon/Epson in the inkjet marketspace.
remember the talk about how it would cost $400,000 to fill your car if you paid as much for gas as you did for inkjet ink
Challanging to believe the speed
The pixel density is 1600dpi Number of pixels per page = 1600 x 1600 x 8 x 11. Multiply that by 24 bits/pixel. Bits per page = 5,406,720,000. At 1 gigabits/sec, it takes 5.4 seconds to load a page into the printer. That is if everything is running at theorical speeds. Nothing does. My high quality pictures are typically 100MB. Photoshop takes minutes just to do a save to hard drive and my computer is not slouch. The math and experience tells me this is vaporware.
You're assuming that all
You're assuming that all photos are sent in raw format. Generally they'll use some sort of compression, even when transferring to the printer. Also, the reason Photoshop takes so long to save is it needs to compress the photo before saving it --- this involves CPU usage, not just disk usage.
That's why serious printers
That's why serious printers have scsi ports and even gigabit network ports. Notice no cables shown in demo.
There is a shadow of a cable
There is a shadow of a cable on the right hand side of the video. At least it doesn't look like it would be caused by anything on the printer.
speed - first copy out
it would take a bit of time to load the image into the printer. but that is just for the 1st copy. When it is loaded, it would run at rated speed because the printer has RAM to store the image data.
The rated speed is based on how fast it prints after all the data has been sent to the system.
vaporware
You'll be vaporware once this printer is available.
Interesting
As a service technician for wide format printing this is interesting to me. All the printers I work on print by square feet an hour, pretty slow compared to these. As for keeping the heads from drying out, they dock themselves in a cap when not in use, and fire the unused colours off to the side (to keep all the other 5 colours from drying if only, say, cyan is being used)
For a small photo printer this is an incredible offering, but for a wide format it probably has no use. I don't know of any media that would accept that much ink being dumped on it without running. Possibly paper, but nobody prints on it, can't wrap a vehicle or do any outdoor graphics with paper!
Think again...
> Possibly paper, but nobody prints on it
Uh, no. You're incorrect.
A lot of people print on paper. Every printing company in the country would buy a large format version of this for proofing. If this thing is for real, it would completely take over that market in a short period of time.
Re: Interesting (BRock)
What a daft thing to say. I work in a bureau running Large Format and Digital Printers. On the large format side, 75% of our output is onto paper. I don't understand why it's so hard to believe that paper could be useful - who the hell do you think prints all of those short-run posters, point of sale boards et al for retail or exhibitions. Our standard stock on the indoor ink machine is a 170gsm Acura matt paper.
This machine would be an absolute godsend for the large format market. No more waiting an hour for that 10m banner to finish printing, now you just have to a wait a couple of minutes before chaanging substrates to run some backlit posters!!!
Can't wait for it to become available. Perhaps a built-in trimmer would be useful as that's the major bottleneck in large format print work. Or maybe just a sheet-fed machine (rather than rollfed) for standard paper sizes A2/A1/A0.
Wide format definitely would use this
Your comment reflects that you are only a service tech and not a printer. With inkjet, it's not the media that absorbs the ink, but the coating. There are coatings that can absorb this much ink and dry very quickly. Intelicoat ( http://www.magicinkjet.com ) is one of the companies that has medias like this.
Wide format definitely would use this
media is the plural of medium therefore the addition of an S is entirely erroneous and utterly redundant, a bit like the often used "pin number" when PIN stands for Personal Identification Number.
Hell of an argument. Also,
Hell of an argument. Also, way to be an ass and keep on topic.
That said...
If these things were to come out at about $150, I'd be all over it.
the best feel of fine art papers are the non coated ones..
such as Arches cold press 256 gram water color paper.. that substrate rules.. BUT you can't print quickly on it because it's uncoated and will bleed.. so it depends on what the client is looking for.. also print on canvases photobases and low end poster papers..
Printer will be $200 eh?
What about the cartridges? Can remember the razor blade tactics: sell the handle cheap, make HUGE profit on the blades. Sell the printer cheap, make HUGE profit on the ink.
Just a hint... RTFA.
Just a hint... RTFA.
The desktop printer's
The desktop printer's individual color ink cartridges hold 50ml of ink, an almost unprecedented amount in a consumer product, and will sell for less than $20 each, the company predicts. Most existing inkjet printers from companies like Epson use ink cartridges with a capacity of about 10ml, and prices of $15 to $30.
Question
Is the only reason a printer like this couldn't be practical for wide format the running problem? I'm completely ignorant but it would seem to be that there would be a solution to a problem like that. Like, less ink.
Wow!
Okay that is awesome! If you look closely at the A4 printer you'll also notice that it seems to have full bleed capabilities! If this thing shoots out photo quality full color prints with full bleeds at 1p/second and it only costs $200... I'm buying one for sure! Too bad it's not expected till next year....
-J
I call "fake"
Large paper sheets flowing out of the printer, but no paper tray visible to feed all these sheets (the printer itself is *smaller* than the sheets). No cabling visible either - and they are nicely placed onto a table, so it would be an easy thing to just feed the pre-printed paper from below the table.
I believe it, when I can buy it...
not to mention that I've
not to mention that I've never heard of lyra reasearch, the only verification on this whole thing.
some no name patent collector company having 4 different prototypes available simultaneously seems a little too good to be true.
OMIGOD! EVERYONE in the
OMIGOD! EVERYONE in the digital printing Industry know of LYRA!
The A4 looks like the paper
The A4 looks like the paper trays are stacked like the original HP Desk Jet from the mid 90s.
Paper feeding on the A4
Haenk:
I clearly see a paper feed tray beneath the "catch" tray which is common in many A4 inkjet printers. And who cares that they feed cables through the table? It looks nice for display purposes.
Hmmm...
Amazing number of attacks by Anonymous users on persons giving critical views...
Wonder why that is...
If Lyra says it's legit,
If Lyra says it's legit, it's legit. I got a press release about this from the Lyra folks yesterday.
freegin amazin
freegin amazin
WANT ONE
NEED WIDE FORMAT PRINTER NOW! KTHX
@Haenk The large format
@Haenk
The large format printer appears to be a spool of paper, as all the sheets come out joined. Did you think about the possibility that it has a paper roll in the back.
No cabling? Are you blind? Cabling is visible in all the screens, except for the photo printer. Grey for the label, you can see the shadow for the A4, and grey for the wide format (it's running under the window on the left).
Do you really think a company like Silverbrook would be stupid enough to make a video of a "printer" when it is actually just a spooler. I don't think so.
I'll get one.
No more breaks
Crap!!!! No more coffee breaks while I am waiting for something to print!
The patents are legit...meaning it probably does print like this
http://www.patentgenius.com/patent/6962410.html
This is the official patent 'ink supply device'
Thats a lot of data
How did they get the data transfer rate high enough to achieve this? My A4 scanner has a full width read head, but takes more than 1 second to transfer a page full of data. I guess if they were using ethernet it may be possible, but the file sizes for large format will still take more than the time shown in the video.
data transfer is a much
data transfer is a much bigger issue in printers where the carriage & cartridges must move back and forth. There are very cpu intensive algorithms for shingling & masking how the dots are to be put down. This product can utilize a MUCH simpler approach to data transformations which tend to be the bottleneck in most photo print modes.
In the last printing (the
In the last printing (the wide one) you can see it being operated in the background, top right corner.
I must admit that I am not quite sure about this... the 'red flags' that are marking this as possible fake for me are: proximity to April fools, the 1980's look of these machines (granted, if they are prototype then that is a little more understandable), and the fact that we aren't given any process video. I agree with those above: It would be all too easy to slip these through, pre-printed, and get a decent hoax going. I'd like to see some closer video of it functioning.
I guess in the end though, I'd rather be fooled by something like this (and know that folks out there are creating the vision for a new edge in technology), rather than just living in a world with no innovation or creativity.
This isn't as new and
This isn't as new and revolutionary as everyone thinks it is - Canon came up with a similar method for printing photos a few years back. The significant part here is making it work reliably on A4 and larger.
Those videos look like 3d
Those videos look like 3d renderings...
VERY NEAT~!!
Wow... I do not care what those critics that are anon are saying! Even if the printer was 1,000$ hell... even 3,000$ I would buy it for my shop! I would buy it for other shops! I would buy it for my family!
If it prints anything in RL like it is on this site, every airport is going to want those printers for the labels... Every airport.
If it is as cool looking on those photos as is in the video... I cant think of a single production graphics shop that would be with out, especially for the prices spoken of!
If that plotter does ANYTHING remotely to that speed on plots.... forget it. Hang it up competition. I know for a fact engineering firms, entertainment firms, planners, developers, anyone who uses those size plots... you can bet your ass they will buy these... in bulk. If the price is anywhere near that of the competition, and at those speed...
Its nice to see once again an underdog pull ahead and beat the hell out of the competition.
have you guys heard of laser
have you guys heard of laser printers? They do exactly the same thing, and it won't blur if you wet the page either.
AMAZING!
laser - yeah right...
have you seen the size of this thing? find me an A4 laser printer that size... oh wait... Toner, drum, heat rollers - and for colour either 4 times as many image drums, or 4 passes. lets see, nope, you wont find it that small. the smallest i've seen is samsung's Black and White ML-1740, or the Dell 1110, also monochrome. and both at significantly lower resolution. Thats not to mention that they're both slower, and have the usual laser Warm up time. Anything in colour is of necessity considerably larger.
Oh, and what about a full colour laser printer that can fit in a mobile phone?
Also, the photos (on photopaper) from memjet can actually be immersed in water and then rubbed without smudging. i'm not sure about standard copy paper though.
hahahahahahahahahahahha
hahahahahahahahahahahha
It reminds me of something...
I feel like playing Skee-Ball for some reason.
Why does it have to be a hoax?
Impact printers have been doing this for years...your basic 9-pin (or 24-pin) printhead moves back and forth across the page and you get a few ppm out of it. Look at a high-speed impact printer and you see one big printhead that spans the whole page. As such, the printing is much faster (I'd be willing to say that it's in the 5-10 times faster page (but that's just a guess)); measuered in inches-per-second. My point is that all they did was take the 'one-big-printhead' concept from impact printers and apply it to inkjets.
There are some technical issues that were pointed out (how to prevent bleeding, data transfer speeds, etc,) but each of the questions usually contained an answer as well (inkjets don't bleed on smaller formats, ethernet could transfer the data fast enough, etc.)
One solution for missing
One solution for missing cables could be that its a WIFI device.
Definite cool there.
I can understand why it wouldn't be, because of the idea that you could issues in the printing, but its still awesomely slick.
Even if it truly can stand up to being 1/2 of what they claim, that is still freakin cool.
Speed
If a full size A4 page (call it 7*10 inches) is printed at 1600dpi @24-bits, my calculator says they need to get about 538MB per page to the printer. If they print at one page a second, this would saturate approximately twenty USB 2.0 channels. Or ten G-Ethernet channels. I doubt it.
They never claimed to be
They never claimed to be able to print 7 by 10 1600dpi at 1 per second. Those pages were standard color pages
Mmhmm. And this is why we
Mmhmm. And this is why we transfer uncompressed data all the time.
If each 'dot' could be any
If each 'dot' could be any of 16.7 million colors your calculation would be correct. However that's not how color printers produce color. Each nozzle can only produce one color, and even in high end heads, at most 4 drop sizes, although 2 sizes is more common on those printers that have that capability. Thus each 'dot' of the 1600 dpi will probably only have 1 of 3 states: blank, small droplet, large (or normal) droplet. It's also quite likely that this implementation doesn't use variable droplet sizes. -- How it works is this: The printer sets down dots of color, so that when seen from a distance the eye 'blends' them into a single color. Most print algorithms use a 5x5 or 6x6 matrix of individual 'bit' dots to make one 'effective' visual dot of color. So the 1600 dpi (per dot addressable) yields perhaps 320 dpi of effective color printing. Try your calculations with that, and you'll see the data requirements are reduced to 7 megs or so, maximum. And that's not counting on using a higher level printer language, like PCL6, which reduces the amount of data needed to send to the printer.
Another skeptic
I am also skeptical that this is real. It takes time for the ink to be absorbed into the paper. At the speeds these are coming out (the photo printer seems faster then the "one-hour" machines at my local pharmacy) they look too "finished". Photos also need some drying time; the photo printer is sliding them off so quickly that they should stick, but they slide. Lastly, the photos look like they were finished with a gloss layer, but a) no pre-application dry time for the ink was provided, and b) there's no mention of gloss "ink".
The roll coming off the wide format printer looks too wrinkled; as if it had been printed, rolled back in, and then fed through.
You just don't know much about wide format paper...
Actually microporous inkjet coatings can do this right now. The print is dry and water resistant a second after the ink hits the paper. The video seems to support this in that the material looks very similar to the Intelicoat DMPQU-G (see the spec sheet here http://www.magicinkjet.com/client_data_pdf/guides/DMPDQU-G_DMPDQU-L_050605.pdf )
Fixative used for wide format
It's belatedly worth noting that some of Silverbrook's patents mention spraying 'fixative' onto the paper through one of the standard ink channels on the print head. Our impression is that this was intended more for the pro-level stuff, like wide format, but we don't know if they're using this technology yet.
Ink dry time
They could be using a bonding agent in the paper.
MIB ?
MIB ?
Funny
I have to laugh. Who other than tech nerds get into an argument over a printer?
a few comments
There are a number of bad assumptions in the comments, mostly based off of lack of knowledge/experience with high-end printers.
1. File transfer speeds.
One person used the "1600 nozzles/inch" to extrapolate "1600dpi". First, that's only the linear resolution: most if not all inkjets have different resolutions for the two different dimensions. Usually, the higher of the two is referred to for marketing purposes, but this does not actually reflect the amount of data in question.
Also, for just about every printer on the market right now, rasterization is done on the printer itself (or on a SCSI connected high-speed rasterizer, which is connected to the network), not in the computer, so the full printed resolution is NOT being transferred to the printer over old, slow USB or ethernet. The "abstract" version of the file is sent to the printer (or attached rasterizer), where the internal postscript (or whatever) interpreter rasterizes it, puts it into the printer's buffer memory and it's printed.
In addition, high-speed interfaces are incredibly common for higher-end printers: my wide-format Epson has FW800 built in, and it's not that unusual.
Also, just to point out, this kind of printing speed is NOT that unusual for a fast, high end printer/digital presses. The only special thing here is that it's using an inkjet print head.
2. Clogging
Depending on the actual technology they are using (bubble-jet, etc), this shouldn't really be a problem. There are a bevy of technologies being used out there to avoid and clear clogs. Although more nozzles = more possible clogs, each nozzle is being used far, far less, so the visual effect of each clog should be nigh undetectable. Also, I don't see any reason to believe this is a water-based ink. many high-speed inkjets use much faster-drying volatiles.
3. "paper only"
I also don't see any reason that this is a paper-only technology. True, the ink flow is very fast, but the proper coating should take care of that. And, for a lot of us out here, paper is still the main substrate being used, though it may be laminated or coated for outdoor use.
do a little googling
If you do a little googling, you'll find that Kia Silverbrook, the guy behind Silverbrook Research is the 3rd most prolific inventor holding US Patents, and is well known for developing an inkjet printhead that can fit in a mobile phone.
You'll also find that Lyra Research is a respected name in the imaging industry.
So even though I'm skeptical (I'm an engineer, and when we have to do demos for trade shows, half the time we have to do most of it with smoke and mirrors due to time constraints), I'm leaning towards believing they have done this.
Whether they will hit the price or time-to-market estimates? Remains to be seen. My guess from the article is that they are probably going to be licensing this to the "big boys" (HP, Lexmark, Canon, Epson, Minolta, etc.) and it will take some time for it to be integrated into their product lineups. So I expect it will be 2 years minimum before anything will hit store shelves.
It looks very cool. Finally, that superfast photo printer they have on CSI could be real.
Ink
What hasn't been revealed is the quality of the ink itself. Is it pigment? Is it archival?
HP and Epson make a big deal about how much research money they've poured into their ink; what kind would Memex use?
By the way: Photo nut, not tech nerd.
Uses dye-based aqueous ink, not pigment
According to Silverbrook, this first version uses a dye-based aqueous ink, not pigment, and not solvent based (because it uses heat to eject the ink). We have a little more information like this, mostly technical stuff, so we'll perhaps put it in another article soon.
It is easily theoretically
It is easily theoretically possible...just watch any inkjet in action...it acts like a swinging arm spraying paint...now put multiple spray cans in a row, and it goes faster.
I think the only odd thing is the distance that ink will have to travel to get out of the print head on a standard sheet of paper...let alone a large format...
you would have to have ink in all the lines premptively...or else the colors nearest the ink would be printed faster than those furthest from the ink...unless you have all the ink colors in a long reservoir that runs the width of the machine...possible...but leaves a lot of potential to have the ink dry up in there.
Horizontal Ink cartridges
The ink cartridges are mounted side by side along the length of the print head. So the ink from the carts at the far ends has to travel almost the whole length of the head (20cm / 8-inches) to reach the nozzles on the far side - and it has to have enough pressure pushing (or pulling) to get it through a microscopic channel to the nozzle.
It sounds challenging anyway!
Lots of patents
I was suspicious of their claim to 1,400 patents, as the successful prosecution of a patent costs $8-10,000 and up. This totals $10-15 million, which is a lot for one product category. But their FAQ points to
http://www.patentboard.com/pr/publication_detail.asp?publication_id=57
which supports this claim.
As one person mentioned, I would like to see blank paper ENTERING the printer and a view of the printhead in action. The videos could easily be faked. If the technology is that good, let's see it work with the covers off. And: What does the ink cost per page?
Sounds like a "have on" to me..
What a lot of bull. How could this be so quite and yet so available all of a sudden. I think this is inside someone's head only.
Good video guys but where's the substance.
PS: This must be the slowest site in the world
Why don't you use this so called speed technology on your website
Anyone notice that we cannot
Anyone notice that we cannot see the paper input? On the label and photo printer, the paper is likely internal, but look at the A4 printer and the large format printer. Shouldn't we be able to see where the paper is coming from? Don't get me wrong, if this is real, it will be great, but I'm a little skeptical.
For all doubters. The complete patent application....
From the United States Patent Office....with pictures :-)
http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO2&Sect2=HITOFF&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsearch-adv.htm&r=22&p=1&f=G&l=50&d=PTXT&S1=Silverbrook.INNM.&OS=in/Silverbrook&RS=IN/Silverbrook
Reputable Sources
I've heard from multiple reputable sources in the printing industry over the past few weeks that this technology is indeed real and will make a huge impact when it's finally released. i can't really say much more than that.
"i can't really say much
"i can't really say much more than that" oh god what a c**k...this isnt the x-files. if you knew more you would blab it faster then a fast thing. go away
Wait, a high speed printer..
Wait, a high speed printer.. what do we need printers for ?? Weren't computers supposed to deliver us a paperless society...
BAWAHAHAHAHAH
I find a couple of the
I find a couple of the objections and reasons why this thing must be fake to be somewhat laughable and ignorant.
I am a commercial Photographer and if you asked me to photograph or video ANY product that had cords coming out the back, I would do my best to hide them....any commercial photographer would. Have a look in any electrical appliance catalouge and tell me how many cords you see coming out of the Steam irons or electrical kettles. You won't see them so they must be fake too. Cords are messy things that are irrelevant to the product so at best, with them not being shown in the video, I would say that it was done by someone with some professional or commercial experience. It is simply not professional practice to leave cords in promotional or advertising images.
The other thing is transfer speed with USB or whatever.
I have run wide format Photographic LAMBDA machines ( anyone heard of these?) and they do not start printing untill a buffer in a computer that runs the thing has been filled and the machine has warmed up it's lasers etc. In wide format mode, although these machines are reasonably slow, you could not transfer the data fast enough for the info to be sufficent for the paper width being printed. The machines run in batch mode because of this so I see no reason these printers could not do the same. With the price of flash memory and the like now, having a gig of ram built in on a manufacturing scale would cost penuts.
Just because the data transfer may be slow, dosen't mean the printer output has to be.
Ink drying
A possible countermeasure against drying of the ink could be integration of ultrasonic cleaner into each nozzle. The Also, there is the possibility of cutting the ink flow into the nozzle and then ejecting the remaining droplet. Or the possibility of sucking the ink back into the cartridge when not needed. If it is a MEMS thing, which I assume it is, such solutions are technically achievable. Perhaps integrate an ink flow monitor to each nozzle, and have a feedback of what nozzles are clogged, and then focus cleaning effort only at those.
Ultrasonic cleaner to clean printhead
You could be right, it looks like they may be doing something like that - pulsing the ink firing mechanism at about 17Khz to clear the nozzles. That's not quite ultrasonic, but it's close.
And maybe they are monitoring something, but not the flow rate, the temperature. More details here.
Current Quoted price of HP Edgeline 4x6 photo printer: $7,400
At PMA 2007 in Las Vegas, two weeks ago, HP was quoting a price of $7400 for its Edgeline printer.
And what if Microsoft licensed Memjet...?
Thanks for the information Dan, that price was something we'd been looking for
Silverbrook say their photo-width print head will be available to manufacturers by the end of this year. That's plausible, since Photo-Me say they are about to begin a limited roll-out of the same print head in photo kiosks (in their home country, France, first of all).
This doesn't definitely mean that a manufacturer will have a desktop photo printer on sale this year, but unless there's something seriously wrong with the whole concept, I guess they'll have the manufacturing worked out within a year.
So what happens when the $7,400 photo printer meets the $150 photo printer? Maybe we're going to see that uneven battle next year...
We've just been discussing the idea that Microsoft could license this tech... now that's a chilling thought for the printer industry
STUPID questions
I can't believe how many people are complaining that it can't be real because they cant see cables or paper going in. Are you BLIND?
The cables are GREY. if you look at the a4 printer, you CAN see it, in the middle on the right edge off behind the printer. As if they're going to make the cable bright yellow or something!?!
Once again, paper tray - clearly visible... underneath the out-tray. A printer this size-sensitive, you don't want the paper sitting out in a 'bypass' tray collecting dust, so of course it's contained - but it would be stupid to put the in and out trays on different sides, so it goes underneath to keep the footprint of the printer as compact as possible.
Have any of you looked at an office photocopyer lately - I can see one from my office. And you know what? I can't see the paper going in blank and coming out printed there either, because its in an ENCLOSED TRAY.
I find it astounding how so many people are so convinced that the current state of technology is as good as it can possibly get, and just live with the insufficiencies of it, so much so that they're prepared to state that something that someone (and their 300 staff members) has spent 15 YEARS developing cannot be possible. Wake up people, its real, and its coming.
if they have a printer that
if they have a printer that already works, why are they waiting for another year to release it.
What makes you so sure that the pages weren't already printed and the machine you saw was just feeding the pages out.
plus why would it take 300 people 15 years to develop something this simple? did we not have this technology 5 or 10 years ago?
read around
They're not 'waiting for another year'. If you read around, you'll see that Photo-Me is rolling out products using this technology later this year, and that they're consulting with potential partners - because they're not producing the printers themselves. What you've seen are prototype models to give poetential partners an example of what they can do with the technology, not production/release models. Give the partners time to stick the guts into their own shells... there you have it, end of the year.
i'd be pretty sure that they didnt have 300 people for all of those 15 years, but regardless of that, what makes you think it's simple? it's not easy to come up with new ideas, 3500 patents (1500 approved, the others pending), develp new manufacturing methods (due to the micro-nanoscopic scale of the components), test, refine, attract partners, and keep it all a massive secret. Next time you manage all of that (plus undoubtedly more) in less time, i'm sure you'll be as big a hit.
also i'd say that if we had 'this technology' 5 to 10 years ago, then people such as yourself wouldn't be so sceptical that it was real
Skeptically optimistic
Very exciting news if in fact true, but I'll reserve my excitement until I see it in action for myself. The label printer is believable, but the large format plotter has me thinking hoax. I don't see how the print heads can travel the entire sheet and be able to keep up with the non-stop flow of paper feed. The print head would have to be the entire length of the sheet in order to accomplish that. If they have managed that, then OMG WOW!!! The large format would definately be on my wish list if they could have those speeds and high degree of accuracy for technical drawings and long print jobs (50 ft or better).
Skeptically Optimistic:
Skeptically Optimistic: Perhaps you should read the articles. If you did, you would see that yes, this IS a PAGE WIDTH printer. ie, the print head spans the whole width of the page, giving it high speed, low noise, and low vibration, since the only thing moving is the paper and the ink droplets themselves.
Because of the design of the print heads, they are incredibly high resolution, and very small, and can be put in anything 20mm or wider on a page-width basis, meaning that this technology is scalable from something that could fit in a mobile or pda, up to large scale printing presses.
I just want to say that for
I just want to say that for everyone claiming that this is a hoax and that the printers are spitting out "pre-printed" paper, you need to chill out and stop being so cynical. Do you honestly believe that this company would release a video such as this and promise high hopes of a fantastic product if they weren't confidant that this type of product would be possible? Honestly, if that were the case, they would have a quick hype at the beginning when the products are released, and then very shortly after, everyone would be reading the bad reviews of the products, and the hype would die out nearly instantly. If that were to happen, this small, not very well known company would have no following, and wouldn't be trusted by the consumer for future products. They would be killing any business before they even had a chance to show their face in the market. I truly cannot believe that such a company would release a video of such a product if they weren't very confident that they could produce what they have promised the consumer. It would be an insanely stupid move that would kill all chances of them becoming a serious competitor in the market. Have some faith you guys, you might be surprised at what comes around. :)
The only thing needed to
The only thing needed to exaggerate the performance of this technology is to speed up the frame rate of the video to make the printing process appear faster than it actually is. My guess is that this printer is printing at 15PPM or so but the video has been accelerated.
CD-Printable
What about CD printable? it's a very big market!!!
Nozzle cloggs
Do you know what is the printhead life ? How many mililitres can go through nozzle before it's dead ? If there is no redundancy in nozzles (which is done by the printhead movement in current printers) you will see every dead nozzle as a stripe across the printout.... Maybe some will like photos with white stripes (maybe stripes and stars in the future :-)) So one clogged nozzle will cost you the price of the printer - if I will be manufacturer, I will like this business.
It's nice example how marketing is important even before the real product exists. Enjoy the idea that you will have this super dooper extra printer, I will keep my current printer.
more info about Memjet
Attached is a press release with some more info about the company. Of
particular note, here is an excerpt:
"Caroline Ticknor, former president of HP's imaging and printing group (24
years at HP and retired in 2001), is chairman of Memjet Ltd., having joined
Silverbrook's efforts early in 2005. Bill McGlynn, CEO of Memjet Ltd.,
joined Memjet in mid-2005, telling us "the only other disruptive technology
he has seen that compares to Memjet is laserjet technology." Mr. McGlynn,
is a 24 year veteran of HP's Imaging and Printing division whose experience
includes running HP's commercial print business, and before that was the VP
in charge of HP's printer marketing. The head of Memjet Photo Kiosk (the
business set up to sell memjet technology into the photo kiosk market) is
Dave Clark, former head of R&D for Phogenix (a disbanded joint venture
between HP (HPQ, Buy) and Kodak (EK, Sell) to sell inkjet minilabs into the
photofinishing market) and spent over 20 years in Kodak labs."
Surely it cannot be a joke
Surely it cannot be a joke that the someone and his 300 staff members spent 15 YEARS developing this Memjet. Meanwhile, what did they actually live on? Trans fat?
If they are going to license
If they are going to license the technology, then Memjet will not controll the price of the machine. How can they say the machine will cost $150 or so .... it will more than likely cost $6,999.00 if HP markets one just over $7,000.
licence pricing.
if they're licensing it to lots of companies, then there will be competition, as lots of companies will have printers with the same technology - the competition will increase the value added options, and decrease the price. it would be stupid to sell the same printer for significantly more than your competitor. The prices that memjet have published are not the prices that they will be selling the components for - they are the feasible end-product prices taking into account a quite reasonable margin - ie, the companies will no longer be making a loss on the printer. Also, the technology is quite different to HP's edgeline - watch the videos on their site and you'll see why - they're not a true pagewidth printer (they have 2 sets of 1/2 width printheads, which move into place when printing) plus it's incredibly bulky compared to memjet
new technology
google 'edgeline technology' click on the HP site and watch the edgeline video to see how the fixed head technology works.
Edgeline uses multiple printheads, not fixed
from the edgeline whitepaper, (which is available on the hp website under "other resources" - it's titled "learn more about hp edgeline technology"):
"printhead configuration for an A-size (81⁄2 x 11") media is shown schematically in figure 3. Two 4.25" printheads span the paper, each printing two colors.9 Four printheads are used."
This can also be seen in the video (How is hp edgeline different)- when it starts up, the left and right printhead arrays are 'docked' to one side of the paper (uppermost in the video), and then they move into position. So, sure, the printheads are stationary while the paper is going under them, but they still move.
the whitepaper and the video also mention "one or two passes through the printer"
So, edgeline has multiple print heads in array, print head movement, and large print heads, vs memjet's small, single, non moving pagewidth printhead.
also, edgeline is not currently destined for anything other than high-volume workloads (ie, offices) - you wont be getting one for home any time soon, whereas i know i'll be buying the first a4 memjet when i arrives
(oh, i love how hp say "20 prints in about 2 minutes" for 4x6. why not just 10 per minute?... vs memjet's 30/min... ok, yeah, it's not out yet, but it wont be long)
WOW
This is crazy awesome. My only question now is how do they handle the ink drying fast enough no to bleed to the other pages?
Anyone?
The nozzles on the inkjet
The nozzles on the inkjet printers now are on the actual cartridges. This printer has it built in into the printer.
THe printers now don't clog up too often coz you're always replacing the cartridges.
this printer will most definitely clog up sooner or later unless they have some sort of a cleaning mechanism like pushing water thru it every month or something.
very cool cant wait until it
very cool cant wait until it comes out
Edgeline is here today!
One thing to consider is that edgeline (HP) printers have already been used in the market and are available in fully functioning products right now. It sounds like productizing the Memjet technology is still one or more years away, and only then can the real-world performance be assessed. Who knows what the next generation of Edgeline will offer by then? Printers of all types are notoriously difficult products to make reliable with InkJet being potentially the most challenging. I think all of the comments about print head clogging and ink bleed are very appropriate concerns since too many existing InkJet printers suffer from these today. All of the major printer vendors could easily show a prototype design in a controlled environment that blew away typical performance, but the real test is building one afforably that can live & operate in somebody's office or home for years reliably with little to no maintenance.
Also, designing a printer is about a lot more than just its peak speed. Issues such as paper & ink capacity, paper-handling (duplex, stapling) and long-run printing volume all have a huge effect on the overall design of the physical box. So why bother making a 60PPM color printer that only holds 100 sheets of paper and can't print 2-sided? These are the other issues that will greatly effect how Memjet products will come out and what they will look like and how much it costs. Still, fresh ideas and competition is a good thing. With technology like memjet and edgeline coming into the market, I think the days are numbered for laser printers.
the final prototype is ready
the final prototype is ready and functioning as shown by the video. Not some monster, proof of concept lab project. Consumer products are listed for the end of the year(at $300), not one or two. Edgeline while available right now (for $8000) hasnt got time to make the radical leaps required to even match even the performance, never mind the cost.
reliability is a concern as it is with all new tech however as it has very few moving parts I should think it is a lot more reliable than inkjet or laser were when they first appeared.
Ink capacity is quoted at 50ml per ink colour. current printers have 10ml. paper capacity should not be a problem either. If you can duplex and staple in a classic printer then you can do it in this. Long run printing shouldn't be a problem so long as you have the ink for it.
Edgeline
The video of this printer is obvious bullshiat. The computing performance required to drive all those inkjet nozzles is vast!
The compute engines required to synchronize ink drops and paper movement yet produce an accurate image is phenomenal. And also to do this reliably for billions of drops and millions of pages.
Only recent computer technology has become available and capable to do this.
I totally disagree. Because
I totally disagree.
Because the PH is static that makes everything simpler and faster.
For inkjets today, with moving PHs, the driver in host computer has to send the motor instructions for the PH as well as the nozzle/drop instructions and the the paper movement instructions. With this technology, since the PH are static, only instructions will be for the nozzle/drop and paper movement instructions. That means you could send more print data per second with this printer.
It's way easier for the nozzles to fire inks simultaneously rather than to constantly fire-move-fire-move constantly. Way easier.
cool - I hope
I hope it's real
BUT
1. Data transfer speed to enable print speed ?
2. Drying time - image transfer ?
3. Why does the device look like a shredder - is there a big nappy at the bottom for waste ink ?
4. Why hasn't HP Singapore developed this already ?
I so want it to be real - but I smell fish
>>1. Data transfer speed to
>>1. Data transfer speed to enable print speed ?
The speeds we have now are enough. By the time they are manufactured, it will be more than enough. In today's inkjet printers, the bottleneck is the printer itself. The IJ printers cannot consume the data as quickly as they come. That's why they have to buffer and the host has to wait until the printer empties the buffer.
Besides there will be less data to send since there will no longer be PH movement instructions.
Can you get the cartridges refilled?
I wonder if the cartridges are refilliable? The cost is $20 for a new one and I know ink refilling franchise the Cartridge Depot can save you at leat 50% ON REFILLS!
Hard for big players to License.
Today, Products like CDRW drives, sound cards etc became commodity. If you have $1 million, will you start a business which manufacture and sell CD RW drives or Scanners? I doubt so.
Their business model requires you to license their technology and make your own product and sell.
There are many challenges.
1. Ink and writing system is only 30%
2. Paper path is another complex logic. HP, Canon, Epson and Lexmark all have many patents. Memjet will protect their idea but the Printer manufacturer will be sued by big players.
3. Reliability and Color accuracy?
4. Today’s modern world everyone wants makes money in business. Memjet will make money in selling Print heads, ASIC, and ink's. How does Printer manufacturer will make money? It will become another Scanner/CDRW Industry.
I doubt big players will venture with them. If some one wants to have exclusive license, then this technology has to be proven (including Reliability). Big players will not take risk in spoiling their brand name by licensing unproven technology
By the time Memjet sells this printer for $199, hp, Epson and canon will sell inkjet printers for $35 and inks for $6
Super fast printer this year?
What's going on with this Memjet? Any more news?
Silverbrook Memjet printer update
We don't have much new information on this.
We'll summarize the reactions of some of the big printer makers in a short article soon - we have some information, but nobody has had time to write it up yet.
I print using epson 9800. I
I print using epson 9800. I need this technology in a large wide format and can't wait for it to come to market.
www.canvastown.com
When are you launching the
When are you launching the Printers, please mail us the uprades
Hmm - fuzzy math
Just for the record, in my math book, if you have more nozzles, you have more chances of a single clog. Think of it this way - line up 1000 inkjet printers, that's the same number of nozzles - give or take. How often do you change the cartridge in an inkjet in its lifetime? 30, 50, 100? More? How many of these 1000 printers are likely to clog up during this lifetime? More than one printer in my house has found it's way to the trash can thanks to gumming up *somewhere* inside.
How many head replacements are expected for this one.... Imagine flinging the heads on this baby every time you change the ink!
Granted, less ink running through each nozzle, especially in the margins. From my experience, nozzles clog on underused cartridges, not overused ones - they empty faster, and don't leave crap around to be wiped off into the catch bin, later to be wiped back onto the new cartridge head. Imagine what a cleaning cycle is like for this thing! Keep a 20 liter pail handy for that catch pan.
I think it will be another, the printer's only $150, but the MTBF is all of 30 days or 30 seconds after the warranty expires.
What's the most amazing is that people question this site, but firmly believe HP's site about the Edgeline.
long way to go to retail print quality
from the Memjet test prints i have seen they have long way to get retail quality printing-i hope they do progress to that level.
They will also need to provide evidence of the robustness standard of the techology,this all seems a bit vague.
mm
This is really hard to believe its just too fast anyway lets see if this Magicjet printer will be out for real!
magicinkjet.com
I doubt.
There is no proof that this printer is even printing these pictures... its really hard to believe.
Mark
memjet
new website up www.silverbrookresearch.com
sceptical?
In our business (automation) we have to reduce throuput sometimes to make our customers believe it's of good quality... Crazy, snit?
Maybe they can reduce the throuput back to "normal", hm? :-))
I saw an article on this
I saw an article on this technology in PC Magazine a few months ago. This article and what it states is completely legit. It's not that hard to imagine. HP's cuurent scalable printing technology will spit out a decent photo in about 20 seconds at 600dpi. Not near as fast as Memjet, but then, Memjet does not have a printhead moving from side to side.
It can't get any better than this to validate Memjet's claims.
Greetings from Melbourne Australia.
My neighbour a proud 79 year old slips a note into my letterbox telling me about his nephew who works at 'Silverbrook', and what they are doing. What do I care about his nephew I hear you ask??
I own and run a digital print / copy business in Melbourne. We have been in business for 19 years have seen just about every hi_tech advance that has emerged in this industry, and adopted it (leased actually) when it was going to give us a competitive advantage and or / a point of difference . . . . . . (and gee have we paid for it along the way!!!).
So the story goes like this, I ring neighbour to thank him for the note and ponder the future of my business. He says ring nephew and get the story accurately. I ring nephew in Sydney and he tells it as it is. "This technology is very very real, and is not far from being in-store."
Nephew says "The Photo Kiosk will be first and should be in-store late '07 / early '08." I did not grill him on the validity of the videos on Memjets website. But I did ask about him. He worked for more than 10yrs with CANON at CISRA, and one of his colleagues there was Kia Silverbrook. Now many years on at Silverbrook Research he is one of many former CANON CISRA employees that have jumped on board with Silverbrook and his vision.
Just in case your Google search didn't throw this up, check this out
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2004/05/03/1083436532813.html?from=storylhs
By the way for you 'nozzle cloggs' & 'fuzzy math' commentators, you might need to have a good look at what inkjet technology you are using or at least speak of current experiences and not days of old. I know inkjet printers and especially large wide format printers. Since 1994 we have had Encad, HP, Roland, and Canon printers on our floor. The current breed of machines are remarkable, and its not just print quality and speed, but most importantly and just recently (say 3-5yrs) reliability. And for you 'sceptics' the nozzles just don't block on these machines any more. We print x 1500+ posters per month, every month then come Christmas as most Australian's do we take 2-3 weeks holidays. On return a couple of primes on the printer and 15mins later its business as usual.
Well Done so far to everyone at Silverbrook Research your'e about to change the inkjet printer landscape forever. And come on Memjet, get to market ASAP with the wide format.
PS All the excitement of us taking delivery of Canons IPF9000 (end July), and thinking that we were innovative and once again on the cutting edge of technology, has just simply re-inforced the adage that 'technology bought today is already superseded whilst you are waiting on delivery'.
Well done Silverbrook & Team, and another amazing achievement for Australia.
these printers are way
these printers are way advanced than i thought
I Need More Information about your Printers
Who is the Reseller for Canada?
Thanks,
Patrick McLeod
the next big announcement
the next big announcement will be April 1st.
free printers, fast, powered by kangaroos
So where is it?
OK great with all the comments and critiques. I love new tech toyz so I just would like to know. WHEN IS THIS THING ON THE MARKET? Its already late 07.. Hope I dont have to wait much longer...
not a hoax
Can't disclose any details, but I work for one of the primary investors in this technology, and it's not a hoax.
Has there been any more news
Has there been any more news about the Memjet? It's almost December 2007, and there hasn't been any credible news for quite a few months. I'd hate to see this turn out like the BitBoys Glaze3D debacle...
Hmm... I guess I just
Hmm... I guess I just answered part of my own question. I found a brief blurb on Conde Nast's website ( http://tinyurl.com/3ctncm ) with the following info on the last line:
"Silverbrook plans to start pushing Memjet in mid-2008."
I guess we all have 6-9 more months to wait.
Wow
I read an article on Silverbrook in a trade magazine several months ago but I didn’t think it would come to fruition for years.
This miracle printing technology has the potential to radically change the entire printing industry. It seams so revolutionary that it’s like the change from VHS to DVD.
I am excited for what this will mean for the end user. If the bugs are worked out of these printers and they perform as seen, every other printer on the market will be instantly outdated. Printer manufacturers that do not have an immediate product offering on par with the Memjet printers will be dangerously behind the curve.
There is no doubt in my mind that the rest of the industry will catch up if they do not use the Silverbrook technology, but it may not be right away. Silverbrook could become a household name overnight, like Intel chips in the PC.
There may even be a few new players who throw their hat in the ring due to the licensing of the new technology. I can only imagine some of the new printing possibilities like printing movie tickets from your cell phone!
-Bob
ASAP Inkjet Cartridges
The Memjet Availability
Since my initial introduction to the MEMJET, I was impressed!
I throughly believe in the technology and realize that Xerox, Canon Okidata, etc., cannot compete with the speed, color capability and accuracy of this engine!
I can visualize having the ability to produce short and long run projects using this system. I believe that the cost of supplies is offset by turnaround time of a praticular project!
My question remains when will it become available?
Keith
AFFECT D&S
Impressed with Memjet
This is surely a revolution in printing techology. From a consumer stand point I am sure the competition will take this very seriously. Canon, HP, Epson will surely want to play a part in this and use this to spearhead their printer sales versus other competitors.
The logical solution has indeed arrived with 50 ml (larger size cartridges) that will ensure a continous supply of ink to the heads and with ink level monitoring will ensure that these will not be clogged up as often as smaller cartridges used by Canon, HP, Epson etc.
I have 3 printers and use a CISS system. This will potentially be the end of CISS systems that prove fantastic only due to the continous supply of ink they are capable of while you monitor the ink levels visually as the inks are stored externally in transparent containers. But the major setback to these CISS systems is the lack of quality and reliability and clogging for sure and as such I see this as the most critical setback for most current inkjet printers.
I am indeed impressed with the lightning speed of MEMJET. I am confident if the business model is managed well they could be the next major printer manufacturer or "MEMJET Technology Inside".
Great revolution in printing. Cannot wait to get one for sure as I love to take photographs and of course print them.
where are they? It seems I
where are they? It seems I read about this technology nearly a year ago and I haven't seen hide nor hair since. Bottom line, I want one!
Well I have no comment to
Well I have no comment to that, let's hope that we'll be able to bring wider applications to this level. To be honest, I really want one too... Technology Transfer University
printhead prices
When this was first announced, I said,"It'll never fly" The big problem with inkjets is the head get clogged or go bad. As wide as these heads are I am sure they cost more than the base machine. Of course they can bring the cost down by making them in China but then we know what Chinese quality is like these days!
Hmmm
I dunno, when something sounds too good to be true, it usually isn't.
Silverbrook still on target for 2008 release?
Looks like Memjet redesigned their website recently (http://www.memjet.com). Also, on their FAQs page I saw these two blurbs:
Q: How soon do you think products will be available using this technology?
A: We plan to introduce components in 2008, enabling our customers to introduce their first products in 2009.
Q: When will the technology be available?
A: The technology will be available in products in 2008, starting with a 100mm printhead that will be used for Retail photo printing as well as Label printing devices. An A4/Letter printhead will be available by the first half 2009 with many variations of components and technology improvements planned for the future.
I'm not sure if "retail photo printing" refers to consumer-oriented desktop printers, or the ones used in professional stores. But it looks like they're still on track for a 2008 unveiling of their technology, with a ramping-up in 2009. Either way, it looks like we're still got some waiting ahead of us.
The printers look like they
The printers look like they will bring the new wave of technology in. I am looking forward to something else though - the printers that create 3D objects. I think that would be much more practical in my life.
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Where are they ?
I'm watching this project since the first news came out, and nothing happened until now ! We have now mid 2008 and I found them on none of the relevant exhibitions .... Hope that something will happen in LFP business ....
Pushed back to 2009
So I decided to check back on Memjet's FAQ page ( http://www.memjet.com/faqs.aspx ) and it looks like they've updated the year components will first be available from 2008 to 2009.
Q: How soon do you think products will be available using this technology?
A: We plan to introduce components in 2009, enabling our customers to introduce their first products in 2009.
Silverbrook hiring staff
Thanks, that's very interesting.
During the past year, Silverbrook/Memjet has been recruiting quite a few engineers with experience of MEMs and some other areas that are obviously related to Memjet - hiring has been in Asia and Australia, with an emphasis on manufacturing expertise, IIRC. So it looks like it has been moving forward, but who knows what problems they're encountering.
Donde Comprar
Estoy interesado en la
"Document printer (A4/letter): 60 ppm page-width, 1600-dpi, "
Donde la puedo comprar.
Enrique
Santiago - Chile
SOLICITUD DE INFORMACION
Hola, muy interesantes las impresoras. les cuento que yo imprimo un periodico en mi pueblo en una designjet 70 de HP, es muy buena pero muy lenta, quisiera saber si ustedes tienen un formato 43 cms X 35 cms. Lo que quiero es velocidad para ver si no me demoro mucho en la impresió.
Saludos,
Carlos Jorge
Hola yo imprimo un periodico
Hola yo imprimo un periodico y lo hago en una hp designjet 70, el tamaño del periodico es de 43 cms X 34 cms, ustedes tienen una impresora o mini ploter de estas caracteristicas, pues veo que el rendimiento de las impresoras de ustedes es super rapido.
saludos,
Carlos Jorge Vega
Ocaña Norte de Santander
Colombia
Nice Speeds
It would be great if I could have one of these types of printers in my office. It would definitely be more productive, though I don't know if that is the main thing. I think it is more so how cool it is. Just my thoughts.
David,
Computer Electronics
Yet another tiny update
Looks like the Memjet website has been both updated & relocated to a new home-and-office-oriented website ( http://www.memjethomeandoffice.com/faq ). Here's the relevant info:
Q: You announced the Memjet technology in 2007. Has there been a delay?
A: The announcement of the Memjet technology and Memjet companies in March 2007 introduced the technology to the industry and enabled the founding of industry partnerships needed to bring the technology to market. At that time, Memjet Home and Office was intending our first market entry to be a small-format, 100mm printhead used for printing 4x6 inch (100 x 150mm) photos. Due to input from our partners, in September 2007 we shifted focus to our A4/Letter printhead and related components, shifting the emphasis to our biggest market opportunity.
While we have delayed our small-format printhead, we had always intended to introduce A4/Letter devices through OEM brands in 2009. In the course of developing any revolutionary technology, delays can and do occur.
Memjet Home and Office, along with our partners, is working hard to bring our first product to market as soon as possible without compromising the customer experience goals we've set. Our ambitious goals for the technology and for the desired customer experience have led to some delays. We look forward to announcing an updated product introduction date soon and encourage you to register for an RSS feed to stay current on such announcements.
I just noticed this, as well.
Maybe it's been posted before, but this ( http://www.memjethomeandoffice.com/products/why_memjet ) is the first time I recall seeing anything about a specific target price point for their home/office products:
Our brand partners aim to deliver devices starting at $300-$500, delivering high-performance, affordable color all the way down to the desktop.
I know things can change drastically up until a product actually launches, but it seems like they'd run the risk of angering their vendors if they were disingenuous about their marketing campaign. And given that I paid ~$300 for a manufacturer-refurbished HP Laserjet 1300 as it was approaching end-of-lifecycle, $300-$500 for a new printer that's an order of magnitude faster and (presumably) sharper than what's available seems like a no-brainer. That is, assuming they don't screw up support issues (e.g. drivers) after-the-fact.
So............ are any
So............ are any machines available yet ?
The wide format machine looks like it might be printing on gloss photo paper, thats if it is actually printing at all, this machine would indeed cause shockwaves in the wide format industry and I would certainly consider a purchase.
As others have said, I will believe it when I see it working in front of me.
I'd be surprised if any real
I'd be surprised if any real news hit before the end of 2009. By all indications, the memjet printers won't be ready to roll out en mass until sometime in 2010.
When can I buy it?
So sick of waiting.
No choice but to wait for more empty promises of a launch date. Are they getting paid well to keep this under wraps, so it doesn't kill the existing tech? Will it ever happen?
Estoy en México...dónde
Estoy en México...dónde puedo comprar sus equipos, me interesa l a de gran formato.
Not encouraging
So here we are, almost at the end of March 2010, and with no updated information about when we can expect the new printers to hit shelves. Fairly disappointing, to say the least.
Wow, muchos inkos
Hope it works in zero gravity. I'll be living in space when this thing finally ships.
It's finally out at the CES
It's finally out at the CES 2011
http://www.engadget.com/2011/01/06/memjet-ink-on-with-the-worlds-fastest-printer/