1 Sensient Technologies Corporation announced that it has acquired ECS Specialty Inks and Dyes, a producer and marketer of inks for specialty printing applications, located in Morges, Switzerland. (4-1-02)
2 IBM announced an investment in Aprion Digital, a supplier of digital ink jet printing technology. IBM Printing Systems will collaborate with its long-term partner Hitachi Koki, who also announced an investment in Aprion Digital to explore possible applications of Aprion's piezo inkjet technology. Aprion Digital was founded in 1999 as a spin-off of Scitex Corporation. (4-4-02)
3 Rexam PLC will sell its Rexam Image Products Division to Sun Capital Partners, Inc of Boca Raton, Florida. Image Products will join a portfolio of companies with combined sales in excess of $2B that are owned by Sun Capital, a privately held investment firm specializing in leverage buyouts. Two consumables manufacturers already acquired by Sun Capital include Genicom LLC, and Smart Papers LLC. (4-5-02)
4 A. R. Monteith, a supplier of digital inks for use on the Vutek UltraVu Printers is extending their product base to include ink for Raster Arizona, and Scitex Grand Jet printers. The PzO products are marketed as an alternative to current OEM inks. (4-02)
5 Epson announced a seven-color desktop photo printer, the EPSON Stylus Photo 2200. The new seven-color UltraChrome inks enable faster printing and a larger color gamut than the previous generation machine, the EPSON Stylus Photo 2000P. This new generation of pigment inks builds on the technology in the EPSON Archival Ink and the EPSON DuraBright Ink, retaining the high resistance to water and light plus adding the larger color gamut. The seventh ink is a low density black ink which enables more neutral grays. The UltraChrome has faster printing and drying time to achieve a print speed of four minutes for an 8X10 photograph on glossy paper. The printer offers resolution up to 2880X1440 dpi with 4 picoliter droplets. (4-25-02)
1 Canon plans to close an ink jet printer plant in Tijuana, Mexico and a support facility in California at the end of May. It said it will consolidate its inkjet printer production in factories in Thailand and Vietnam. (3-6-02)
2 Repeat-O-Type Manufacturing Corporation introduced an electronic device to reset smart chips on cartridges used in Epson Stylus C60,C50 and Stylus Photo 820 and 810 ink jet printers. Chips are reset by placing them against the resetting device for 6 seconds, switching the stored message they send to the printer from empty to full. (3-28-02)
1 inc.jet, a division of Gunther International, Ltd. is now licensed as a master distributor for Hewlett-Packard's invisibile inkjet technology. Visibile to the human eye when illuminated with UV light, and also IR machine readable, the invisibile ink print cartridges were developed to improve document appearance and security. The systems will offer a less obtrusive way to code documents for example, in the insurance and banking industry, as well as to print security marks or information as a means of fraud protection. (2-4-02)
2 MacDermid Graphic Arts who manufactures and markets Colorspan wide formal digital printers, will stop development of thermal inkjet large format printers. They will partner with a third party, piezo inkjet manufacturer. Inks and media will continue to be produced at the Eden Prairie, MN facility, as well as the DisplayMaker thermal ink jet printers. Started as LaserMaster in 1993 the company was acquired by MacDermid Corporation, Waterbury, CT, in June 2000. (2/6/02)
3 Phogenix Imaging launched the DFX digital photofinishing system, the first in a series of ink jet mini-labs for the retail market. Phogenix Imaging, formed in 2000, is a joint venture that combines Eastman Kodak's imaging expertise with Hewlett-Packard Company's thermal ink jet technologies. DFX use Kodak's DLS image management software, HP ink jet technology including inks, and paper/laminate technology from Kodak. Retail price of $39,900. An additional full-roll film scanner, and a chemistry-based film processor/scanner for film processing (in the future) are available. (2-4-02)
4 Klee Incorporated, the exclusive distributor in the United States of Printon, Inc. (South Korea) Inkjet Refill Kits, announced new, refill kits for Epson, Hewlett Packard, Lexmark and Canon printers based on a patent-pending re-pressurization tool technology, and claimed significant advances in ease of use, quality of printout, and quality of user experience. $25 per kit with each kit allowing up to three refills. (2-19-02)
1 Sensient Technologies announced that it has acquired SynTec GmbH, a manufacturer of specialty dyes and chemicals for the imaging industry. The purchase expands Sensient's technical capabilities in highly purified organic chemicals and provides them access into electrophotographic chemicals and dyes for the photoconductor area for laser printers and copiers, as well as into the expanding markets for OLEDs (Organic Light Emitting Diodes.) Sensient stated "We now have a presence in the laser imaging market that complements our leading position in ink jets." (1-10-02)
2 Marconi, the embalttled UK telecon equipment maker made its second sale to U.S.group Danaher in three weeks. It collected $400M in cash for Marconi Data Systems, which used to known as Videojet, as it whittled down a huge pile of debt. Videojet, a major supplier of non-contact, ink jet printing and laser coding equipment generates revenues of approximately $300M a year. It is a major manufacturer of ink jet inks for the high speed coding and labeling market. (1-10-02)
3 Hewlett Packard announced it has won a patent lawsuit relating to thermal inkjet printer cartridges, when the administrative law judge of the United States International Trade Commission (ITC) ruled that by importing and selling inkjet cartridges manufactured by Microjet Technology Co., Ltd. of Taipei, Taiwan, several companies infringed on five HP patents. The decision is the first step to an order HP seeks from the ITC prohibiting the defendants from importing and selling any infringing inkjet cartridges into the United States. (1-28-02)
1 Roland DGA Corporation introduced the SOLJET SC-500 printer/cutter with solvent-based-inks of low volatility. The Roland SOL Inks are reported to offer a safe working environment with no special ventilation requirements. The piezo system can utilize six color inks, prints at 1440 dpi, and is reportedly fade resistant outdoors for up to 3 years.
2 Sensient Technologies acquired the industrial dye business including dyes for ink jet inks, of Crompton Colors, Inc. from Crompton Corporation. The acquisition reportedly pushes Sensient's ink jet sales to more that $60M per year.
3 Lyson announced Lysonic Small Gamut ink set aimed at professional quality monochrome ink jet printing. The ink set produces a wide range of monochrome tonal shades from warm tones like sepia to a true neutral black or a blue-black similar to a selenium print. Available in Epson compatible cartridges.
4 Aprion Digital has established an new ink plant in Be'er Tuvya, Israel. The plant will have an annual capacity of 3,000 tons. It will produce inks optimzied for the high frequency print head of Aprion's piezo printing systems targeted at the packaging, outdoor signage, and home furnishing markets.
1 Eastman Kodak will acquire ENCAD for $25M, and ENCAD will become a wholly owned subsidiary. Kodak becomes the third largest manufacturer in the wide-format printer market, behind HP and Epson. Almost half of ENCAD's revenues comes from supplies; ENCAD outsouces all of its supplies including inks and coated media. Kodak manufacturers its own inks and has coating capability. Both companies also sell products using Lexmark printheads.
2 Sensient Technologies acquires Kimberly-Clark Formulabs from Kimberly Clark Corporation. Sensient which was previously Universal Foods, has been a supplier of ink jet inks and dyes since it acquired Tricon Color in the late '90's. Formulabs, Inc has been a supplier of inks for the industrial, large format and textile markets.
3 Dupont announced a joint market development agreement with Spectra for the distribution of Dupont's Artistri and other inks for industrial printing markets. The Artistri Inks, introduced earlier in the year for digital textile printing , were developed for use with the Nova-Q printhead from Spectra. Other industrial printing and decorative printing applications will be targeted.
4 Xaar plc announced a lightfast white-pigmented UV-curable ink for its XJ500 printhead. The low volatile XaarJet-71W00 ink was developed with Avecia for the coding and marking applications on non-porous substrates. The ink is a 100% solids, acrylate-based, and cures when exposed to UV light.