Epson to quadruple its inkjet printhead production capacity

Epson has announced that construction of its new factory at Tohoku Epson has been completed. Built with a total investment of US$33.7 million, the completion of the new factory is estimated to quadruple the Tohoku Epson site’s future printhead production capacity.

The company expects sustained global demand for inkjet printers, as demand for commercial and industrial inkjet printers increases along with an analogue-to-digital technology shift in sectors such as digital textile printing.

Many commercial and industrial inkjet printers are now using PrecisionCore MicroTFP printheads. These printheads can be flexibly adapted for different applications by assembling MicroTFP print chips in various combinations.

Epson expects further growth in the use of PrecisionCore printheads in commercial and industrial printers and inkjet multifunction printers with high-speed lineheads.

Epson is strengthening its printhead sales business to accelerate inkjet innovation and expand the applications for digital printing, which it says has a lower environmental impact than conventional printing.
Tohoku Epson began manufacturing CHIPS printheads in 1995. In June 2013, Epson launched volume production of PrecisionCore printheads on an automated assembly line that extensively uses Epson robots.

To ensure stable production, each of the two sites in the Tohoku region will be allocated responsibility for different models. Still, to ensure business continuity, both sites can flexibly adapt to production fluctuations with production lines for the most popular models and shared lines. This will enable Epson to strengthen its product lineup in response to future demand for inkjet printers equipped with PrecisionCore printheads.

The new building is adjacent to the existing printhead production facility and is designed to enable more efficient operations, from component processing to assembly. In addition, the new process design aims to reduce labour and save space, minimising in-process inventory and introducing automated transport robots and efficient layouts to reduce the workload on operators.