Technology FAQs

Memjet technology is a new generation of printing technology for industrial label customers, delivering 12 inches per second (305mm) full process color printing performance at breakthrough costs per page and price points relative to performance. 

The technology consists of four main components including 8.77"/ 222.7mm (A4) wide printheads, high performance controller chips, software and custom inks, which Memjet Labels sells to OEM brands to be integrated into their own branded printing devices. Memjet Labels will be developing narrower printhead widths in the future (i.e. 4" / 100mm) in order to bring our ground breaking technology to various industrial and retail labeling markets that require smaller footprints and economical applications.

Memjet devices are page printers that are designed to process and print an entire  A4 color page in one second or half a second for a full process color 4x6 label. The printhead spans the width of the page so that it can print the entire width of the page while the paper simply moves underneath the printhead.  The Memjet software and controller work together to efficiently process the data.  The controller contains a high speed 648 MHz processor and embedded memory sufficient to print even complex pages at rapid speeds.  Each printhead contains 70,400 nozzles and can print up to 900 million drops per second with minimal warm up time. 

Memjet's customized water based inks are absorbed into the paper in milliseconds.  Even high-coverage labels, can be handled immediately after printing and are highlighter resistant.

The Memjet printhead nozzles are small enough that the human eye is not able to see the impact of single clogged nozzles distributed randomly across a Memjet printhead.  Even so, the Memjet components and related ink delivery and maintenance systems have been carefully designed to mitigate clogging and other potential problems that lead to print quality issues.  

The surface of the Memjet printheads and the silicon nozzle's structure are designed to be effectively wiped clean by a maintenance system.  Each Memjet based device will be delivered with a maintanence system designed to keep nozzles healthy while the device is printing as well as after it has been idle for a period of time.  Maintenance system regimes have been designed into Memjet controller chips and can also be adjusted by OEM brands to support a range of printing environments and customer requirements.     

Certainly. Memjet prototypes shown to date print at 12 inches per second (305mm) and are considered fast enough for most label printing environments.  As speeds increase beyond 12 ips, devices become less practical based on cost and complexity due in part to more expensive paper movement systems and increased related mechanical robustness.  

Yes.  Memjet inks are customized to ensure sustained performance and quality using a Memjet printhead.  Using the wrong ink can dramatically decrease the capability of a Memjet printhead and can ultimately destroy it.  While the chemistry and fluid dynamics of Memjet ink formulations are unique and specific, the Memjet water-based inks have many ingredients in common with inks used in industrial label printing environments today.

While it may be possible to provide non-water-based, specialized inks such as UV-curable inks or solvent-based inks with Memjet printing systems, it is not a current priority for Memjet Labels. That said we will be developing other ink formulations as we advance our technology and move into various industrial labeling markets.