Nanotechnology Gaining Ground in New Ink Technologies
Nano Ink Has Many Advantages
Inkjet or digital printing has been getting better ever since it was introduced, and has long dominated the small consumer market for low cost, high quality prints. Lately, inkjet technology has also been gaining ground in many types of commercial printing, and the latest inks and print head technologies are helping that transition. These same technologies will also be seeing widespread use in consumer formats as well, but it looks as though, especially in Europe, the digital format is going to take over the printing industry much quicker than many people thought even five years ago.
One of the things which will push inkjet technology into this century are nano inks and nanographic presses, both of which are what Landa is concentrating on. Nanotechnology has seemingly been making inroads into all types of industries, and it was only a matter of time until nanotechnology adapted itself to the inks and printers which we all use. For a long time commercial printing has just not used inkjet technology. Usually new technologies are used at the producers level and gradually sift down into the consumer market as designers figure out ways to make the new equipment work with smaller, consumer platforms.
How Will The Ink Affect The Mix?
Landa’s work in nano inks is going to have major impacts on the industry - it allows for a surprising number of specialty formations depending on the task at hand, and can use much less water. Nano ink is made of billions of microscopic water based droplets with pigment particles in the tens of nanometers size, and the final film is only 500 nanometers or so thick. This is less than half that of offset, traditional presses and substantially less than large inkjet machines would use.
These advances are going to revolutionize the ink world, and it is safe to say that at some point all ink and printers will be powered by nanotech devices and inks. They can deliver the quality prints, and save a huge amount of money in the process, and there are many other ways that inks and machines can be manipulated to print on an ever expanding array of media.
Photographic printing and graphic arts will see huge benefits from the nano technologies that are now being developed for the ink and print industry; the designers are just now getting geared up for these new technologies and the effect they will have on inks and print heads.
The printer ten years from now will be the same as always in two important ways - you will still have to buy ink cartridges, and will be able to save money when you buy compatible ink cartridges. Don’t have any fears that compatible ink manufacturers will be able to keep pace with the developers in the ink and printer world. These reseller and compatible ink manufacturers are an important part of the printing business, and it never takes them long to adapt to what is going on in the marketplace.