In the inkjet industry, the inkjet print heads are the core component of the inkjet printer. There are photo printheads and industrial printheads on the market. The printing speeds of different printheads are different. So what determines their printing speed, and what factors affect the printing speed? In this issue, we will talk to you about how to compare the printing speeds of different printheads.
In actual applications, the following three indicators determine the print speed of the inkjet print heads:
1. Number of Nozzles
The more nozzles an inkjet print head has, the faster the print speed will be. For example, the Epson DX5 printheads have 8 rows of nozzles, 180 nozzles in each row, and a total of 1440 nozzles; while the Epson 4720 printhead also has 8 rows of nozzles, but the number of nozzles in each row is 400 nozzles, and the total number of nozzles is 3200. The actual printing speed of the Epson 4720 printhead will naturally be faster than that of the Epson DX5 printhead.
2. Jetting Frequency
The jetting frequency of inkjet print heads is the number of ink dots that can be ejected per second by each nozzle (e.g., the Epson DX5 printheads have a jetting frequency of 14.4kHz, which means that each nozzle can eject 14,400 ink dots per second). The higher the jetting frequency, the more ink dots can be ejected per second, and naturally the faster the printhead prints.
3. Ink Droplet Volume of Inkjet Print Heads
The ink droplet volume is relatively easy to understand. It is the size of the ink droplet ejected by the printhead. It is usually measured in volume rather than size. (1mL=1000μL 1μL=1000nL 1nL=1000pL 1pL=1000fL). Most Epson printheads are 3.5PL, and industrial printheads are generally 7PL-25PL. If the ink droplet volume is small, more ink dots must be used to cover the unit area to achieve the same color saturation.
The above three factors determine the print speed of the inkjet print heads. The larger the value obtained by multiplying these three factors, the faster the print speed of the print head. Some print heads have many nozzles, but the jetting frequency is very low, so the print speed of the print head will not be fast; some print heads have a high jetting frequency and many nozzles, but the ink droplets are too small, so the print speed may not be fast.
