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 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. Watch the video.
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. www.inkish.tv, www.inkish.news
