Xaar is offering its OEM customers a new Customer Waveform Tool, or CWT, to help them tune their Xaar print heads for better performance.
Waveforms are electrical drive signals which are applied to the channel walls inside a drop on demand printhead to eject the ink or fluid from the nozzles. As such, waveforms are essential in determining how the ink droplet is formed and ejected from the head, and controlling how that droplet stretches in flight before landing on the substrate. Some vendors treat waveforms as closely-guarded proprietary information, while others will work with OEMs to tune the waveform for their specific needs and yet others leave it up to OEMs to determine their own waveforms.
So this is a useful development for Xaar’s customers and should give them more control over their product development and ultimately help shorten their time to market. Naturally, this should also make Xaar a more attractive partner to any OEMs looking for a printhead supplier.
Xaar is offering the waveform tool at two levels. The first is for Authorised companies, who will be able to develop and test waveforms for internal use, with Xaar then approving them if external distribution is required. The second is for Certified users, which is those OEM and Ink Partners who meet certain technical criteria and are technically qualified to develop and distribute waveforms as well as delivering service level CWT support.
Alan Mutch, Senior Product Manager at Xaar, commented: “This tool helps our customers to leverage their own technical capabilities and address the needs of their own customers.” He added: “We are launching the CWT as part of our ongoing commitment to working more closely with, and delivering the very best service to, our global OEM customer base.”
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