This Month's Spectrum Summary:

(The following is an excerpt from the March 2004 issue of Spectrum, a proprietary monthly briefing published exclusively for the clients of I.T. Strategies, Inc. © 2004)

Rx for the Industry:
Full Width IJ Arrays - Strong Medicine, Not for Everybody

This month Mark Hanley and Marco Boer discuss the potential of full width inkjet arrays as a long term growth catalyst for the industry. A number of companies have demonstrated the technology, and more activity is expected at this year's Drupa. The applications addressed by the innovators include address imprinting, industrial, and general-purpose standalone machines.

But so far, these demonstrations have not led to widespread commercialized products, except for the CIJ Kodak (formerly Scitex) Versamark. In the USA and Europe, the strongest potential applications at this point are as add-ons to analog packaging presses. In Japan the focus is more on commercial print.

Looking at performance, the technology offers more speed than people expected. UV-curable inks are chosen by most of the pioneers, despite the added post-treatment complexity. Print width limitation could discourage some potential users, and reliability is a concern. We can expect incremental, fragmented progress, but the big commercial applications will take time.

Significant investment will be required to penetrate specific applications. Compared with EP, however, there is an R&D gap. Investment in EP is believed to be currently more than 40 times that being invested in full-width IJ array technology.

Timing is critical, and we are still early on the learning curve. R&D resources, market access, and willingness to take risk all seem important. Kodak seems committed to the technology and has the resources, so is one company to watch. Although they have not demonstrated products to date, it is likely that Lexmark, Epson and HP have been working on the technology. Canon has commercialized products based on their 4-inch array. Heidelberg has ceded NexPress to Kodak, but does have inkjet for imprinting.

One strategy could be "build it and they will come." Riso is an example, with its HC 5000 which is a price/performance breakthrough. Fielding a product without a clear-cut target can attract an answer from the market. Similarly, a lot of full-width array printers are expected at this year's Drupa as a good market probe venue.

If we are going to go forward with inkjet, Marco believes, it will be full-width arrays. Otherwise, it will remain largely limited to the low-end, desktop market. Some smaller companies have pioneered, but in the long run it seems the ball needs to be carried by companies that can become "workflow players." This means developing integrated processes that may include software, hardware, pre- and post-finishing, and services. Full-width inkjet arrays will be just a part of the system, but every part is essential to complete the picture.