The ceramic tile industry's top ink and glaze companies showed the considerable advantages of digital inkjet tile decoration using the innovative Xaar 1001 inkjet printhead at Cevisama (Valencia, 8th-10th February).

Colorobbia, Esmalglass-Itaca, Ferro and Chimigraf-Fritta all work closely with Xaar to ensure that their digital decoration inks and glazes produce the best results on Xaar-enabled digital inkjet printers. The unique design of the innovative Xaar 1001 printhead ensures reliable and consistent high-quality tile decoration and, as a result, is the printhead chosen by the industry's leading digital inkjet printer manufacturers: Cretaprint, KERAjet, Projecta Engineering (SiTi B&T), IN.TE.SA and TecnoFerrari.

At Cevisama the ink companies displayed a variety of creative tile designs to demonstrate how the digital inkjet process opens up many new opportunities for tile producers. Digital inkjet enables unlimited freedom of creativity with the ability to produce life-like patterns. There is no limit on pattern repeats, plus tiles and borders can be printed with matching patterns and colour. Because inkjet printing allows users to print on textured and embossed surfaces, a greater variety of designs can be produced.

Xaar works closely with Colorobbia, Esmalglass-Itaca, Ferro and Chimigraf-Fritta to approve their digital inkjet inks for optimum performance with the Xaar 1001 printhead. These companies praise Xaar inkjet technology for its ability to deliver important creative and production advantages:  "Through Xaar technology we are able to offer new innovative products and new solutions to our customers, delivering significant improvements in aesthetics," says Pedro Rodero, Esmalglass-Itaca Grupo.

"Xaar inkjet has changed the world of ceramic decoration. Digital inkjet decoration has the power to inspire new designs that would not have been possible using traditional methods," says Jose-Antonio Comitre, Ferro.

"The many benefits of inkjet are revolutionising the ceramics market," says Marco Toccaceli, Marketing Manager, Colorobbia Italia. "The Xaar 1001 printhead handles ceramic inks very well and ensures high-resolution quality. In association with Colorobbia inks, the Xaar 1001 printhead allows customers to properly experience the many advantages of inkjet technology,"

Innovative Xaar 1001 inkjet printhead design meets industrial demands  

The low-maintenance drop-on-demand Xaar 1001 is the perfect printhead for digital ceramic tile decoration. This printhead features Xaar's unique TF Technology, a patented design of re-circulating ink through the printhead which ensures operational reliability in challenging production plants. The Xaar 1001 printhead's ability to produce variable-sized (greyscale) dots gives tile producers the ability to select fine drops for smooth tones, contrasting shades and sharp lines. Whilst the larger drops provide high ink coverage to intensify colour density and saturation. The result is a stunning replication of natural materials, enhancing the print quality so the printed tile is almost identical to the original.

"The ceramic tile industry is experiencing a digital revolution and Xaar has the best industrial inkjet technology to fuel this revolution," says Mark Alexander, Director of Marketing, Xaar plc. "The ceramics sector is a significant part of our business. We are strongly committed to ongoing investment in new developments and are currently expanding manufacturing capacity to meet demand. Our partnerships with leading ceramic ink and digital inkjet printer manufacturers are a strong endorsement of our expertise, and together we will continue to develop the market."