Cambridge – Xaar plc, the leader in industrial inkjet technology, is delighted to announce a new partnership with Italian ink manufacturer Metco Srl to deliver Xaar-approved Solvent Soluble Inks (SSI) for use in GS12C and GS40C variants of the Xaar 1003 printhead and the Xaar 2001 GS12C.  

Established in 1990 in Bologna, Italy, Metco was the first company in the world able to develop a set of completely soluble inks without using gold for magenta. These inks are used in the production of highly polished Lappato tiles found in commercial ‘high traffic’ locations such as shopping malls and public buildings.  

“We are delighted to be working with Metco”, says Duncan Gellatly, Manager, Global Ink & Application Support. “As you would expect from the market leader in ceramics inkjet technology, we have led the way in China bringing a digital solution to polished tile manufactures; we are now able to include a forward thinking company such as Metco in our portfolio of approved ink partners.”

“We are delighted to be working with Xaar.  The two companies share a philosophy of delivering innovation to the ceramics market,” says Metco’s Graziano Vignali. 

Xaar-approved inks offer the tile manufacturers a range of benefits such as improved print performance, print reliability and improved throughput. All Xaar-approved inks go through the XaarDOT^® fluid optimization process which includes determining complex rheological characteristics of a fluid to identify and fix reasons for poor performance; materials compatibility and lifetime testing to evaluate the effect of the fluid on the printhead and to establish fluid robustness; waveform optimization to ensure greater drop placement accuracy as well as optimized operating voltage; and verification of the consistency and reliability of the fluid over a period of one year of heavy usage.  In addition, Xaar-approved inks are warranted against long term damage to the printhead. This provides the reassurance that the fluid has been validated, approved and optimized to give unrivalled print performance and trouble free operation. The warranty differentiates XaarDOT^® optimized fluids from other non-warranted fluids.

Metco inks which are approved for use in the Xaar 1003 GS12C and GS40C, and the 2001 GS12C, are available now.