Construction Completed on New Factory for the Manufacture of Inkjet Printheads at Akita Epson

The new factory at Akita Epson

Construction of a new factory at Akita Epson Corporation, a Group company of Seiko Epson Corporation (Epson) has been completed. Built with a total investment of over AUD$33 million, the completion of the new factory approximately triples Akita Epson's future printhead production capacity.

Epson's printing solutions business provides products and services based on original Micro Piezo inkjet technology to customers in the office, home, commercial, and industrial markets.  Global demand for inkjet printers is forecast to continue growing. In the office and home inkjet printer markets, strong demand for decentralised printing since the pandemic has been complemented by robust demand for high-capacity ink tank printers not only in emerging markets but also in North America and other developed economies.

Demand for commercial and industrial inkjet printers is increasing along with a technology shift from analogue to digital in sectors where the printing media is not paper, such as digital textile printing. Moreover, many commercial and industrial inkjet printers use PrecisionCore MicroTFP printheads*, which can be flexibly adapted for different applications by assembling MicroTFP print chips in various combinations.

Currently, about 20% of Epson's inkjet printers are equipped with PrecisionCore printheads, but this percentage is expected to increase, since commercial and industrial printers and high-speed linehead inkjet multifunction printers use a larger number of print chips per unit.

The new Akita Epson factory is designed to increase the production and assembly of printheads, the core component of inkjet printers, to keep pace with the increased production of MicroTFP print chips made possible by investment in the front-end process at Epson's Hirooka Office.

The factory is also designed to provide space for future expansion of the facility, with a view to strengthening the product lineup, expanding printhead sales to third parties, and meeting growing demand for inkjet printers equipped with PrecisionCore MicroTFP printheads.

The new factory is situated adjacent to the existing printhead factory and has enabled greater efficiencies from components production through to assembly. In addition, production equipment and processes have been arranged to further increase human productivity and space productivity. Specifically, the new facility has a newly designed, optimal layout wherein Epson robots and other equipment will be arranged in islands. By using this island design, Epson aims to increase production efficiency by 30% on a high-throughput production line.

As a production site with premier technological capabilities, Akita Epson closely collaborates with Epson's research and development centres in Japan.  Moreover, it shares the advanced production technology and know-how it gains through the production of core devices with Epson's overseas production sites to improve the Epson Group's overall manufacturing capabilities.

Please see the links below for further details about Micro Piezo inkjet technology and PrecisionCore printheads:

Micro Piezo Technology
https://corporate.epson/en/technology/search-by-products/printer-inkjet/micro-piezo.html 

Micro Piezo printhead manufacturing technology
https://corporate.epson/en/technology/search-by-products/printer-inkjet/precision-core.html 

Picture credits
The new factory at Akita Epson
The printhead production flow
 

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LinkedIn: @Epson-Australia
Facebook: @EpsonAustralia
Twitter: @EpsonAust
YouTube: @EpsonAustralia
Instagram: @EpsonAust
 

*PrecisionCore MicroTFP printheads are critical components that determine the image quality and speed of an inkjet printer. Equipped with an array of individually controlled nozzles, they can eject 50,000 tiny ink droplets per second, with droplet sizes as small as several picolitres (a picolitre is one trillionth of a litre).
 

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About Epson, Epson Australia and Epson New Zealand
Epson is a global technology leader whose philosophy of efficient, compact and precise innovation enriches lives and helps create a better world. The company is focused on solving societal issues through innovations in home and office printing, commercial and industrial printing, manufacturing, visual and lifestyle. Epson's goal is to become carbon negative and eliminate use of exhaustible underground resources such as oil and metal by 2050.
Led by the Japan-based Seiko Epson Corporation, the worldwide Epson Group generates annual sales of more than JPY 1 trillion.
https://corporate.epson/en/https://corporate.epson/en 

Epson Australia offers an extensive array of award-winning image capture and image output products for the commercial, industrial, consumer, business, photography and graphic arts markets, and is also a leading supplier of value-added point-of-sale (POS) solutions for the retail market. Epson is the market leader in Australia and worldwide in sales of projectors for the home, office and education. Established in 1983 Epson Australia and now in its 40th year of operation, its headquartered in Macquarie Park, NSW and is a subsidiary of the Epson Group headquartered in Japan.

www.epson.com.au 

Epson New Zealand offers an extensive array of award-winning image capture and image output products for the commercial, industrial, consumer, business, photography and graphic arts markets, and is also a leading supplier of value-added point-of-sale (POS) solutions for the retail market. Epson is a market leader in New Zealand, Australia and worldwide in sales of projectors for the home, office and education. Epson New Zealand is headquartered in Auckland and is a branch of Epson Australia Pty Limited, a subsidiary of the Epson Group headquartered in Japan.
www.epson.co.nz