REVOLUTIONS IN PRINT
Office printing has been the source and place of convergence for a series of technological innovations through the years,
but progress has come in fits and starts. More than half a century ago, inkjet technology was first successfully adapted for
commercial use. Yet it would be a few decades more before an inkjet printer ever reached the mass market and offices.
For the last 20 years, true breakthrough printing technology innovation for the office
has been non-existent. There have only been incremental improvements. And with
that, has come growing end-user frustrations in buildings everywhere across the globe.
During this same time, major leaps have been made in other areas of office and
consumer technology. Think about the shift from floppy disk to the USB drive, from the
bulbous cathode-ray-tube televisions to the ultra-thin flat-screen plasmas, or from the
first “brick” cellphones to today’s sleek powerful smartphones. Real and meaningful
advancements have been made everywhere except in office printing. That is, until now.
A new technology that was quietly simmering in labs is being brought to market by
Memjet. MEMS, or microelectric mechanical systems, are a nanoscale technology
that can used in many ways, including the production of extremely high nozzle
density on a page-wide printhead at low manufacturing costs. This revolutionary
Memjet approach, which is also being commercialized by leading commercial and
industrial printer companies, will revolutionize the industry through its superior
speed, resolution, cost-efficiency, and dependability in one package. Memjet is more
than a new technology. It’s a new technology category of printing.
Milestones in Office Printing
INKJET
IMPACT THERMAL
LASER
MEMJET
OTHER
TECH
2013
2012
2011
2010
´11
´10
2009
iPad ®
Apple launches the
first tablet computer
to find success with
consumers and businesses.
´09
2008
Memjet Debuts a printer capable of
printing 60 pages per minute at true 1600 dpi,
all at running costs that rival monochrome
printers and are more than half those of
existing color printers in the market.
Working Prototype of a Memjet
printer is featured at the 2009 Consumer
Electronics Show (CES).
2007
2006
2005
2004
´04
2003
2002
2001
´01
2000
Razr
Motorola’s stylish
and sleek offering
becomes the most
popular clam-shell
phone ever.
´02
iPod ®
Portable media
players let consumers
put their entire music
library in their pocket.
a new type of color printer based on the MEMS research done
at Silverbrook.
MEMJET
HOW IT WORKS
The Memjet printhead features 11 integrated circuit chips, which
provide a flexible, configurable silicon structure to channel ink to
70,400 31-micron wide nozzles firing up to 750 million picoliter
drops of ink per second onto the page with unparalleled accuracy.
1999
NOZZLE CROSS SECTION
1998
1997
Memjet Founded to develop and commercialize
´97
1996
The nozzle’s diameter is
smaller than a human hair—
less than 10 micrometers (µm).
Prius
Toyota introduces
the world’s first
mass-produced
hybrid-electric vehicle in Japan.
<10 µm
1995
1993
´93
1992
1991
Dyson Vacuum
British inventor
James Dyson
releases the
first production
version of
his bagless,
filterless vacuum.
Silverbrook Reseach
´94
Color Inkjet ´94
1994
printer from
Epson features a
piezoelectric
printhead.
Cost. . . . . . $699
Speed . . <1 ppm
is established in Australia to
develop color printing
technology based
on micro-electro-mechanical
systems (MEMS).
First Color Laser ´93
printer, the ColorScript 1000,
is introduced by QMS.
Cost . . . . . . . . . . . . . $12,449
Speed. . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 ppm
1990
1989
´89
1988
Game Boy
´89 “Personal” Laser
printer, the IIP, is
released by HP.
Cost . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $1,495
Speed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 ppm
Fax Machines
´89
Nintendo releases
its popuplar line of
handheld video game
players Game Boy in the U.S.
featuring thermal printers
gain popularity in offices
in Japan, Europe,
and the U.S.
1987
1986
1985
1983
´84 The LaserJet
from HP, the first laser printer affordable
enough to be in every office.
Cost . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $3,495
Speed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 ppm
Thermal Inkjet ´84
1984
´83
1982
technology hits the
market with HP’s ThinkJet,
an affordable option with
sluggish speeds and low
resolution.
Cost . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $495
Speed . . . . . . . . . . . 2 ppm
DynaTAC 8000x
It is the first cellular
phone to receive
FCC approval.
´81 Networked Laser
printing system, the
Star 8010, features a
sophisticated interface.
Cost . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $17,000
Speed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120 ppm
1981
´80 Rugged & Reliable
MX-80 from Epson
becomes the industry
standard for dot-matrix
printers.
Cost . . . . . . . . . . . . $650
Speed . . . . . . . . 1 ppm
1980
1979
1978
´77
1977
1976
´76
printing system from Xerox, the 9700,
combines a printer, copier, and
computer station.
Cost . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $350,000
Speed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120 ppm
Gaming Console
Atari unveils the
2600 gaming console.
1975
All-In-One Laser
1974
1973
1972
1971
´71
1970
First Portable Thermal ´71
Floppy Disk
printer, the Silent 700, is
marketed by Texas Instruments.
Cost . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $3,300
Speed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . <1 ppm
IBM introduces the
world’s first floppy disk.
´69 Laser Printing
1969
is invented by Gary
Starkweather at Xerox’s
research center in Webster, NY.
1968
LASER
1967
Lasers are used to transmit the digital images but the
other half of the laser printing process relies on static
electricity. The laser is directed at an electrically
charged rotating drum that attracts oppositely charged
powdered ink, aka toner, which
is then transferred onto paper.
1966
Thermal Printhead ´65
1965
1964
´64
1963
is invented by designers
at Texas instruments.
Mouse
Douglas Engelbart’s
first prototype mouse
has one button and
a wooden casing.
THERMAL
HOW IT WORKS
1961
Laser unit
Mirror
Silicon integrated circuits are used to direct
precisely targeted heat onto paper that reacts
to heat, or a thermal ribbon that transfers ink
onto regular paper, in order to print text and
images. TI quickly adapted this technology to
add a printer to a calculator.
1962
HOW IT WORKS
Toner
hopper
Photoreceptor
drum
assembly
Paper roll
1960
Printhead
1959
1958
Paper tray
Thermal ink
Transferred ink
´58
Microchip
´54
The Unimate
1957
1956
Texas Instruments’ Jack
Kilby creates the first
microchip, a wired sliver
of geranium glued
to a glass slide.
1955
1954
1953
is introduced by Control Instruments.
IMPACT
´52 Continuous Inkjet Printer
1952
1951
´54 A Dot-matrix Printer
George Devol patents
the first industrial robot,
the Unimate.
´51
First Color TV
CBS makes its first
commercial broadcast in
color to the handful of
people who can receive it.
is brought to market by Siemens but
finds little commercial success.
INKJET
HOW IT WORKS
HOW IT WORKS
Impact printers work on the same principle as a
typewriter by using force to impact an ink ribbon onto
the paper to transfer letters and symbols. The key
innovation was to use pins to strike the ribbon, which
could be programmed to print
any character or shape.
The basic principle behind inkjet printers dates back
150 years to when Lord Kelvin patented a system that
used electrostatic forces to control the release of ink
onto paper. Today’s inkjet printers release tiny droplets
of ink from the ink cartridge from an array of thousands of micronozzles as the printhead passes back
and forth across the paper.
Micronozzles
Ink cartridge
Printhead
Ink ribbon
Printhead
Growing bubble
forces ink
from tube
Heating
element
Ink
MEMJET TECHNOLOGIES
Waterfall Printhead Technology ™
Memjet color printheads use what we call “waterfall” technology. It’s more energy
efficient. It’s more mechanically sound. And it’s up to eight times faster, even faster
than most black and white laser printers. The Memjet printhead is a radical shift in
printhead design. It literally changes everything.
Each sillicon
integrated chip
has 6,400 nozzles.
Memjet's exclusive printer head includes 70,400 nozzles.
Fast Controller Chip
When you create a printhead
as fast as Memjet’s, you need
a processing chip just as fast.
And since one didn’t exist, we
created our own. Working at the nano level, we
reconfigured chip circuitry and engineering to
make ours among the fastest in the world.
Optimized Software
Printheads and controller chips
moving at blazing fast speeds are
only as good as the software that
drives them. So we’ve developed
software from the ground up to maximize speed, stability and efficiency. Included: apps for printer drivers,
installers, usage-tracking, error-reporting and more.
Advanced Inks
With a printhead that’s up to
8 times faster than
traditional inkjet printheads
you need an ink that can
keep up. Specially formulated for optimal printing
at breakneck speeds, Memjet ink is quite
possibly the most advanced ink ever created.
Sources: The Computer History Museum; Corporate websites; Erwin Tomash, “The U.S. Computer Printer Industry”, in Deuxième Colloque sur l’Histoire de l’Informatique en France Actes, March
1990, 287–315; Henry Wilhelm, Wilhem Imaging Research, Inc.; InfoTrends; InfoWorld; PC Magazine; Popular Science.