Global Inkjet Systems (GIS), a leading developer of software drivers and electronics for industrial inkjet printheads, has added USB 3.0 capability to its family of Print Manager Boards (PMB). The new PMB-C8-3 has been developed to support the increasingly high data rate requirements of the latest industrial inkjet printheads.  

The core electronics technology of GIS is the separation of data handling, managed by the PMB, and printhead control, managed by Head Interface Boards. The PMB provides read and write access to all available inkjet printhead settings including temperature control, voltage and waveform settings, binary and greyscale calibration. 

The new PMB-C8-3 increases data throughput up to 2,700 Mb/s enabling a much higher number of printheads to be driven from its eight data channels than the USB 2.0 versions.  Depending on the individual printhead data rate, this next generation technology can drive up to 32 printheads from just one PMB, reducing cable connections and the amount of electronics needed in production systems. 

The  PMB has an on board Advanced Encoder Management System (AEMS) which supports industry standard encoders and product detect / print go signals and provides per-printhead encoder divide and sub-pixel adjust, delivering complete drop placement control and repeatability. Encoder and product detect inputs are fully isolated. The PMB-C8-3 also provides strobe output for drop watchers as standard. 

High speed on-board RAM of 4GBytes provides ample buffering for wide format and single pass systems, allowing the specialised software drivers to deliver continuous static and variable data streams to the printheads. 

The new PMB-C8-3 is USB 3.0 and USB 2.0 compatible and does not replace the company’s existing Print Manager Board products, but it is expected to become the PMB of choice for manufacturers building high end, multi-printhead systems – particularly those integrating high resolution, greyscale, high speed printheads such as the Kyocera KJ4 series, Konica Minolta 1800i and Ricoh Gen 5. 

Commenting on this new development, Nick Geddes, CEO said, “As the number of printheads in systems increases – particularly in single pass applications -  and the resolution and data handling demands also increases, we are constantly looking at how our customers can maximise efficiencies in their system design. By adopting USB 3.0 we are building on the production proven reliability of our USB 2.0 technology and providing the next generation data handling technology to the market.”