Guest Author: Morten B. Reitoft, Editor-in-Chief at INKISH
The very first time I heard about Memjet was at a tradeshow. Which one I can’t remember, and it isn’t important either. I remember that inkjet wasn’t really on the radar, or at least not mine. It was a time when the toner-based printers were the dominant digital printing devices, so when I saw for the first time a Memjet enabled machine, I could hardly believe my own eyes. The speed was amazing, and when I started to investigate the technology, I soon realized that Memjet was unique.
Since then, I have met Memjet at numerous tradeshows, and seen their technology in all types of equipment – label printers, office equipment, packaging printers, and so forth. I once had the pleasure of talking with the late CEO, Len Lauer. He was an amazing person and so passionate about his products and technology that I constantly had to say to him – “Len, don’t start the marketing engine, I am just interested to learn.” But, visiting with the many different partners at tradeshows showed me the diversity of Memjet – and the business model. Fast is, of course, one thing; another is the quality.
Let’s start with speed. Memjet is fast since it uses single-pass print technology. That means, instead of having a printhead moving over the media, the media passes under one or multiple printheads. This approach has given Memjet an incredible jump-start into inkjet, which today is the dominant new technology.
I have, however, always been wondering about one thing. Why haven’t I seen Memjet in the higher-end production equipment? You see Fujifilm, Ricoh, and other printheads in production equipment – why not Memjet?
That was until recently. Last week, my team and I went to France to see the new AlphaJET from MGI Digital Technology in action. The AlphaJET is an entirely new type of printing equipment that combines CMYK water-based Inkjet print, digital enhancement, and digital foiling. The AlphaJET uses the Memjet DuraLink print-heads and aqueous ink. With this partnership, both companies elevate each other and show how technology can be used in ways that will be a new starting point for many printing companies.
We are proud to be a “launch” partner for MGI Digital Technology and Memjet and look forward to seeing the machine at a printing company soon.
