Cambridge: ? Xaar, the leader in industrial inkjet technology, and Ricoh announce a strategic partnership to maximise the benefits from each company's considerable expertise in Thin Film piezo printhead development.  The collaboration between Xaar and Ricoh will deliver superior technology and a broader range of printheads which will provide substantial benefits to the customers of both Xaar and Ricoh.

The announcement comes at an exciting time for Xaar, whose Bulk piezo inkjet technology is already at the heart of an enormous number of industrial printing systems in a wide variety of applications around the world. Xaar's collaboration with Ricoh relates to new technology and products developed for a number of its new Thin Film piezo printheads. The first product which has benefited from this partnership – the Xaar 1201 GS2p5 is on the Xaar booth at drupa (Hall 6 Stand C05).

"This is an important and exciting partnership which enables us to deliver even greater benefits and a wider product portfolio with new technology to our customers" says Doug Edwards, Xaar's CEO. "This will therefore provide end customers in many industry sectors with improved productivity at lower costs. Strategic collaboration is part of Xaar's vision which will help us to achieve our ambitious growth plans over the next few years".