Xaar and Quantica partner for inkjet printing with ultra-high viscosity

The deal means that Xaar will manufacture Quantica’s NovoJet printhead at its Huntingdon facility. Quantica made the heads themselves, but only on a trial basis.

Quantica’s NovoJet 3D printing systems are designed to enable ultra-high viscosity printing for 2D and 3D printing applications. Xaar has partnered up with Quantica to benefit from its printhead manufacturing expertise.

The initial NovoJet printheads will be shipping in Quantica’s first 3D printers from the end of 2023.

The partnership also gives Xaar access to Quantica’s intellectual property for jetting viscous materials up to 400cP (cP is the unit of viscosity). By comparison, Xaar’s existing heads and new ImagineX range can jet up to 100cP which is already very high for graphic arts applications.

Xaar announced its results three months earlier. An official statement said, “Sales were up at Xaar, and customers have embraced its Aquinox printhead with two new machines already in development – ahead of the group’s expectations.”

The first machines to be developed are for direct-to garment (DTG), textile printing, and pigmented inks. Aquinox is also capable of handling reactive dye inks.

The head also targets the corrugated market.

Despite supply chain issues and sales in Asia declining by nearly a quarter due to the Chinese lockdown, Xaar’s overall sales from continuing operations rose by 23% to US 75-m. Gross profits jumped by 42 percent to US 29-m.

Xaar stated that the recent acquisitions FFEI, and Megnajet performed better than expected.

Megnajet’s Kettering facility is being doubled in size to support growth in its fluid management offering.

Xaar invested USD1.5m into reorganizing its Huntingdon facility to improve manufacturing processes and energy efficiency. The number of clean rooms, which are energy-intensive, was reduced from four to just two.