Kyocera Corporation (President: Tetsuo Kuba) today announced that it has developed the world’s fastest* inkjet printhead — the key component in inkjet printing equipment. Each nozzle in the new KJ4 Series printhead ejects ink at up to 60,000 dots per second (at 60kHz drive frequency); with 2,656 nozzles per head, the device is capable of printing approximately 150 million dots per second.

Kyocera’s previous inkjet printhead offered the world’s fastest print speed when it was introduced in 2008 – 150 meters per minute at 600×600dpi resolution, using a drive frequency of 30kHz. The newly developed printhead sets new records for high resolution, full-color inkjet printing, offering the world’s fastest print speeds in any of three resolutions: 600×360dpi (330m/min. at 40kHz), 600×600dpi (200m/min at 40kHz), and 1200×1200dpi (150m/min at 60kHz).
Recent years have brought increasing demand for on-demand printing, which allows for a larger variety of printing in smaller order volumes to meet specialized customer needs in the commercial high-speed printing market. In this way, inkjet printing is garnering attention for its flexibility on a page-by-page basis which contributes to productivity, and for its cost performance.
The new technology enabling this development was achieved by enhancing the drive frequency with Kyocera’s unique elemental technology; making the interior ink channels more compact, optimizing the nozzle configuration, and improving the water-repellent coating on the printhead nozzle surface to prevent clogging, thus ejecting the ink more accurately. In addition to speed, it provides the high resolution required in the commercial printing market, with a 50 percent improvement in ink-drop placement accuracy over Kyocera’s previous model. And like the original, the new printhead maintains the world’s broadest single-unit print width, at 4.25 inches – enabling convenient printhead arrangement. Collectively, these features reflect Kyocera’s commitment to lead the digital on-demand market with continuous technological advancement.

Kyocera will display the new printhead at the Japan Graphic Arts Show 2009 from October 6 through 10 at the Tokyo Big Sight.
*World’s fastest drop-on-demand inkjet printing based on Kyocera testing as of August 31, 2009.

The shortlist for the 2009 Channel Awards has been announced and voting opened on<br />7 September. Fleur Doidge introduces the competitors in the running this year.

Some serious work for the team of judges has resulted in the Channel Awards shortlist. According to chief judge and CRN editor Sara Yirrell, the standard of entry this year has once again been higher than ever.

It took an entire morning of final deliberation by the panel of 10 judges ­ following initial perusal and assessment between entry deadline and the judging day ­ before the contenders in all 18 categories could be decided.

“This really was an exceptional year, with more entries than ever, so we would like to remind everyone that to have made it to the shortlist stage is a real achievement in itself,” said Yirrell.

Good luck to all those nominated. Voting began on Monday 7 September and closes on Friday 9 October 2009.

Some promising entries fail at the final hurdle by not canvassing their contacts and encouraging them to vote.

Just one vote will be accepted per person, and one vote per email ­ although different people at the same company can vote. However, if a smaller company accumulates a large number of votes for its size, that will be taken into account.

Unscrupulous methods of increasing the vote count will not be tolerated; for instance, block voting is forbidden and so is using personal email addresses such as generic webmail accounts from the likes of Hotmail, Yahoo or Gmail.

Only IT companies with a verifiable email address may vote, along with verifiable customers and partners. Nominees may not vote for themselves.

Yirrell and publisher Mark Burton will check each and every vote individually to ensure compliance with the rules.

Andrew Hall, marketing manager at event headline sponsor OKI Printing Solutions, said: “This will be the second year of our headline sponsorship of the CRN Channel Awards.

These awards provide us with the opportunity to engage with other top-tier resellers that may not have focused on print.”

Hall said the awards are an important way for vendors such as Oki to build and grow charitable channel relationships.

Distinguished sponsors including Acronis, Avnet, Brocade, Cohort, Computerlinks, Hammer, HP, Intel, Symantec and Trend Micro will ensure the best possible event for 2009.

The black-tie ceremony, attracting about 1,700 channel champions from across the UK, will be held on Thursday 19 November at the Battersea Evolution arena in London’s Battersea Park.

Yirrell said the competition for Awards is proving exciting.

“I must urge shortlisted companies to get busy by encouraging voting. This is critical,” she added. “Firms very deserving of an award have previously missed out by simply not getting the votes.”

‘TouchSmart’ tech and a new iPhone printing app, natch!

HP has launched a new range in its Photosmart printers line, featuring improved wireless support for Apple iPhone and iPod touch users and HP’s own ‘TouchSmart’ technology.

The HP Photosmart C4680 is billed as the ideal solution for home-based scanning, copying and printing, letting you quickly and easily view your photos and documents for printing on the machine’s colour display.

“The HP TouchSmart frame includes a 3.7cm colour display screen with touch buttons on the left and right sides of the screen for easy navigation through the printing process,” reads HP’s TouchSmart press release.

iPhone-friendly printing

The HP Photosmart C4680 is joined by other new printers in the range – specifically, the HP Photosmart, the HP Photosmart with Wireless, the HP Photosmart Plus and the HP Photosmart Premium.

HP claims that “the new Photosmart series has transformed the printer from a functional device to a fun and creative platform that the whole family can engage with.”

The company clearly hope that its “unique TouchSmart technology” means that both the oldest technophobe in the family through to the youngest family members “can print photos or games on their own without using a desktop PC” as well as “creative and fun projects using shortcut keys such as the QuickForm button on the TouchSmart screen.”

Key features on HP’s new printer range include the HP Photo Print Gadget, which lets you drag and drop photos to a desktop icon from virtually anywhere and then intelligently edits and crops photos to suit the photo paper size.

The HP Smart Web Printing app also helps you to save ink and paper, has built-in wireless features and Apple iPhone or iPod touch support via the free HP iPrint Photo app.

The new HP printers will retail from £79.99, for the HP Photosmart C4680, through to £199.99 for HP Photosmart Premium available from October.

The Simplest Way To Manage Your Printers And Multifunctionals

With the support of Kyocera a 100% channel focussed global printer and MFP manufacturer, you can now take advantage of a hassle free managed print solution.  Giving you predictability and accountability of all your printing costs.

KYOprint Packs are a new way to buy your copying and printing facilities.

• No Hidden Charges
• No Print Volume Restriction
• Get Peace-of-Mind from an All-Inclusive Service

“With KYOprint pack it really is ‘Pay as you Print’ an easy and simple Managed Service offering from Kyocera.” – Jonathon Francis – Print & Imaging Business Manager