The History and Evolution of Industrial Inkjet Technology

Written By Andrew Neckar

Industrial inkjet printing has transformed from a niche experimental technique into a cornerstone of modern printing. Over decades, advancements in printhead design and ink formulation have pushed inkjet systems to new heights of speed, resolution, and versatility. This article traces the history of industrial inkjet technology – from early continuous inkjet experiments to today’s high-performance systems – and highlights key innovations such as thermal and piezoelectric drop-on-demand methods, continuous inkjet, and UV-curable inks. A special spotlight is given to Digital Print, Inc. (DPi), a company whose milestones over nearly 40 years mirror the industry’s broader evolution in variable data and high-speed inkjet printing.

Early Beginnings: From Continuous Streams to Digital Dots

The concept of using liquid ink droplets for marking paper dates back to the mid-20th century. One of the first “liquid jet” recording devices was patented in 1948 by Rune Elmqvist. Elmqvist’s design was essentially a high-speed analog oscillograph that squirted a continuous stream of ink onto paper without physical contact. This continuous-ink principle was refined in the 1960s into the first true continuous inkjet (CIJ) printing systems. For example, a 1965 Teletype Corporation device (the “Inktronic” teleprinter) used electrostatic deflection to turn a continuous ink stream on and off rapidly, printing at 120 characters per second.

Continuous inkjet was thus “born” as a high-speed printing method in the late 1960s. In CIJ, ink is constantly pumped through a nozzle to form a fast jet. A vibration (via a transducer) breaks the jet into a steady stream of tiny droplets. By charging selected droplets and deflecting them with an electric field, the system can aim some drops onto the substrate (forming printed text or images) while diverting the rest to a gutter for recycling. This technique proved effective for industrial applications: as early as the 1970s, companies like IBM, Hitachi, and Xerox rapidly developed CIJ for product coding and marking. The advantage was clear – CIJ could spray ink at very high speeds, making it ideal for printing date codes on factory production lines. The use of fast-drying solvent-based inks in CIJ further allowed printing on non-porous surfaces with immediate drying. To this day, CIJ remains widely used for industrial date coding, packaging, and other applications requiring reliability and speed. Notably, CIJ technology has also been scaled up for high-speed graphic printing; for example, Kodak’s Stream continuous inkjet is used in some of the fastest digital presses for newspapers and commercial print.

Despite its speed, CIJ historically produced relatively coarse output compared to other methods, since controlling tiny continuously flying droplets is challenging. This led inventors to pursue a different approach: only create droplets when and where you need them. This concept gave rise to drop-on-demand (DOD) inkjet.

Drop-on-Demand Revolution: Thermal and Piezoelectric Inkjet

In the 1970s, researchers developed systems that eject droplets only on demand (for each dot of the image) rather than continuously. Early pioneers of DOD inkjet include Zoltan (1972) and Kyser and Sears (1976), who devised methods to produce droplets via electrically driven pressure pulses. Two main DOD strategies emerged:

  • Thermal Inkjet (TIJ) – also known as bubble jet, this method uses a tiny heater to rapidly vaporize ink, forming a bubble that expels a droplet from the nozzle.

  • Piezoelectric Inkjet (PIJ) – this method uses a piezoelectric crystal that flexes when an electric voltage is applied, mechanically forcing a droplet out of the nozzle.

Both methods matured around the late 1970s and early 1980s. In 1979, Canon introduced the first commercial thermal inkjet printer using a heated bubble to propel ink. Hewlett-Packard (HP) soon followed, and by 1984 HP launched the ThinkJet – a thermal inkjet printer with a disposable 12-nozzle printhead. HP’s innovation was not just the use of thermal firing, but also the idea that the printhead could be mass-produced cheaply and replaced when it wore out. This solved reliability issues by making the printhead a consumable component. Thermal inkjet technology leveraged semiconductor manufacturing techniques from the start: tiny resistors and nozzles could be fabricated at scale, enabling low-cost, high-density printhead arrays. Over the next decades, companies like HP and Canon (and more recently Memjet) continued to refine thermal inkjet, developing page-wide arrays using silicon MEMS (microelectromechanical systems) processes to pack thousands of nozzles at 1200 dpi or higher onto a print bar. Thermal inkjet became ubiquitous in home/office printers and also found uses in industrial mail addressing and product coding where inexpensive, replaceable cartridges were advantageous.

In parallel, piezoelectric inkjet was advancing as well. The first piezoelectric DOD printhead design was patented by Steven Zoltan in 1972. Zoltan’s design used a cylindrical piezoelectric actuator attached to a glass capillary tube – when energized, the piezoelectric element would squeeze or deform, creating a pressure pulse that ejects an ink droplet. By the late 1980s and 1990s, piezoelectric inkjet printheads were being commercialized for graphics and industrial printing. Notably, Epson adopted piezo printheads (MicroPiezo technology) for its printers, and companies like Xaar (founded 1990) and Spectra, Inc. (later Fuji Dimatix) developed piezo heads used in large-format and industrial machines. Piezo heads offered the big advantage of materials flexibility: since they don’t boil the ink, they can jet a wide range of fluids (including solvent-based, UV-curable, or pigmented inks that might damage thermal heads). They also can eject variable drop sizes by adjusting the electric waveform, enabling grayscale printing for higher apparent resolution and smoother images. Piezo printheads tend to be more durable as permanent components, although they historically were more expensive to manufacture than thermal heads. Nonetheless, for many industrial applications requiring precision and compatibility with various ink chemistries, piezoelectric DOD became the technology of choice.

By the 1990s, the inkjet landscape had split into these three primary technologies – continuous inkjet, thermal DOD, and piezo DOD – each carving out niches in industrial printing. CIJ remained dominant for ultra-high-speed and coding on products (e.g. food packages, bottles) due to its reliability and quick-drying solvent inks. Thermal inkjet, with its low cost and high nozzle density, excelled in office printing and smaller-format applications (like desktop photo printers or mailing imprinting using cartridge-based systems). Piezo inkjet, offering high image quality and flexible ink options, took hold in wide-format graphics (signage, posters), textiles, and later in high-end commercial presses and label printers. Meanwhile, a lesser-known DOD variant, valve jet, also found use in applications like printing large characters or textiles with very high ink volumes. Valvejet heads use mechanical valves to open and close nozzles, allowing very large droplets to be thrown long distances (useful for coding big boxes, marking lumber, or jetting ceramic glazes). Each of these technologies saw continuous improvement, often driven by demands for higher speed, better resolution, and new substrate capabilities.

Advances in Printhead Design and Performance

From the early 1980s to today, printhead engineering has dramatically improved the quality and speed of inkjet printing. Early inkjet printheads had on the order of 12 to 64 nozzles (the HP ThinkJet’s 12 nozzles in 1984 being an example), printing at a few dozen dots per inch. Modern industrial printheads boast thousands of nozzles and can achieve print resolutions of 600 dpi, 1200 dpi, or more at high speed. For instance, a single Kyocera KJ4 piezo head (approximately 4.25″ wide) contains 2,550 nozzles and can jet drop volumes as small as ~7 picoliters. Multiple heads can be “stitched” together to cover wider print widths; by aligning heads, systems can print across 17″, 22″ or even wider for formats like corrugated boards.

Printheads have also become faster in firing frequency, enabling higher linear speeds. For example, a modern 600 dpi Kyocera head can often run at 30 kHz frequency, allowing speeds of hundreds of feet per minute while maintaining resolution. In practical terms, industrial single-pass inkjet presses today can exceed 500 feet per minute at 300–600 dpi in monochrome, as seen with systems integrating Kyocera heads. Specialized continuous inkjet presses (like those by Kodak) can go even faster for certain applications (the Kodak 6240 system was rated around 1000 feet per minute).

To support variable data printing at these speeds, equally significant advancements have occurred in controller and software design. Printhead controllers must synchronize enormous data streams to tens of thousands of nozzles in real-time. Variable data printing – where each printed piece can be different (addresses, personalized text, barcodes, etc.) – requires robust RIP (raster image processing) and high-speed image pipelines. This is an area where companies like Digital Print, Inc. have innovated (more on DPi shortly). Modern print systems often include onboard image processors and sophisticated software for layout, barcoding, and printhead alignment.

Another leap in printhead technology is the use of MEMS fabrication and new materials. Thermal inkjet heads, as mentioned, leverage silicon wafer fabrication to achieve low-cost, dense nozzle arrays. Piezo head manufacturers have also adopted MEMS processes (for example, Fujifilm Dimatix’s Q-Class and MEMS heads, HP’s PageWide head, and Memjet’s page-wide thermal head) to build high-precision nozzles and integrated ink channels, improving consistency and reducing cost. Some printheads incorporate recirculating ink channels that keep pigments in suspension and prevent nozzle clogging, a feature especially helpful for inks with higher particle content (like white inks or metallics). Printhead durability and maintenance have improved with features like automated cleaning routines, nozzle plate coatings, and in the case of DPi’s Hawk M7, even remote support and maintenance modes that minimize downtime.

Ink Innovations: From Water to Solvent to UV

Printing performance is a marriage of printhead and ink – and ink formulations have evolved dramatically to enable new applications. In the early days, inkjet inks were typically water-based dyes for simplicity, especially for thermal inkjet (which requires volatile components to form the vapor bubble). Continuous inkjet for product coding, however, quickly adopted solvent-based inks (often using fast-drying solvents like methyl ethyl ketone or alcohol) so that markings would dry almost instantly on plastics, metal, glass, or other non-absorbent surfaces. These strong solvents also carried polymers that improved adhesion and durability on various substrates. The downside was odor and environmental issues due to volatile organic compounds (VOCs). Over time, “mild” and “eco-solvent” inks were developed to reduce toxicity while still printing on vinyl and plastics.

By the late 1990s, to address indoor air quality concerns, new ink types like aqueous pigmented inks and latex (a water-based ink with polymer particles that form a film upon heating) were introduced for large-format printers.

A major milestone in ink technology was the advent of UV-curable inks for inkjet. Unlike solvent or water inks that dry by evaporation or absorption, UV inks contain liquid photopolymer components that solidify (cure) when exposed to intense ultraviolet light. This allows printing on nearly any material – the ink lands as a liquid and then is instantly cured to a solid by UV lamps, bonding to surfaces like plastic, glass, metal, or coated stocks. The first UV-curable inkjet printers debuted around 2000; for instance, at drupa 2000 the Inca Digital flatbed printer showcased UV inks printing directly on rigid boards. Early UV inks were somewhat brittle (unsuitable for flexible media), but ongoing chemical innovations improved their flexibility and adhesion. The introduction of LED-based UV lamps (which are cooler and more compact than traditional mercury lamps) in the 2010s further expanded UV inkjet’s reach, enabling UV curing on heat-sensitive materials and even 3D objects. Today, UV-curable inkjet is used widely in industrial printing – from signage and displays, to direct-to-shape product printing, and even for printing electronics and 3D parts.

The marriage of ink and printhead is an important theme. Each printhead technology imposes constraints: thermal heads require inks that can form vapor bubbles and not leave residue (often limiting them to water-based formulations with specific additives), while piezo heads can handle a broader range but still must contend with issues like viscosity and particle size. Over time, manufacturers began co-developing inks and heads as a system. For example, early thermal inkjet development involved creating new dye-based inks that wouldn’t clog the microscopic heaters. In piezo, materials research produced new durable polymers for nozzle plates that resist aggressive solvents or acidic UV ink components. The result of these advances is that modern industrial inkjet can print high-resolution images on virtually any substrate given the right ink: from porous paper and cardboard (with aqueous pigment or dye inks), to vinyl and films (with solvent or latex inks), to glass, metal, and ceramics (with UV-curable or solvent inks), and even fabrics (with textile pigment or dye-sublimation inks). Each new ink formulation – be it latex, UV, eco-solvent, or nano-pigment – has been about expanding the range of printable materials while meeting environmental and performance demands.

Industrial Impact: High-Speed, High-Resolution & Variable Data Printing

The confluence of better printheads and inks has enabled inkjet to infiltrate areas once dominated by analog printing (like offset, flexography, or screen printing). High-speed inkjet presses emerged in the 2000s for transactional printing and direct mail – for example, web-fed inkjet presses from HP, Canon/Océ, Kodak, and others began replacing toner-based machines for bills, statements, and personalized mailings. These presses use arrays of inkjet heads to print full-color variable data at hundreds of feet per minute, a task unimaginable with early inkjets. The push for higher resolution also opened new markets: inkjet is now used for short-run commercial printing, label production, packaging (even directly on corrugated boxes), and fabrication of things like ceramic tile patterns and textiles. In each case, the technology had to meet specific needs – often a combination of speed + quality + flexibility. For instance, printing a personalized magazine insert requires high image quality and unique content on each page (variable data), which inkjet can do on the fly. Printing a label on a shampoo bottle requires specialized ink (perhaps UV) and adherence to a production line speed, which modern inkjets achieve.

It’s worth noting that the business advantages of inkjet – no plates or make-ready, ability to change content digitally, print-on-demand without inventory – have driven its adoption as much as the technical improvements. As soon as printheads and inks reached a tipping point of quality and cost, industries rapidly embraced digital inkjet for its on-demand and variable imaging capabilities. This is evident in the resurgence of direct mail marketing: highly personalized, full-color mail pieces are now feasible at high volume thanks to fast inkjet systems, leading many marketers to reinvest in printed mailers.

Spotlight: Digital Print, Inc. (DPi) – Pioneering Variable Inkjet Systems

One company that has been at the forefront of industrial inkjet – especially in the realm of variable data printing – is Digital Print, Inc. (DPi). Founded in 1986 by Jack Farr, DPi’s mission was to create a “better, faster, more affordable, and user-friendly variable system controller” for the printing industry.

In its earliest years, DPi developed one of the first system controllers and an 8.5" print engine (using Delphax ion deposition technology) for the U.S. National Security Agency – a highly advanced system for its time. As variable data printing gained momentum, DPi partnered with major industry leaders, including Kodak. In collaboration with Kodak, DPi helped drive the high-speed Kodak 6240 continuous inkjet printer to exceed 800 feet per minute – a landmark achievement in digital production printing.

In 1998, DPi introduced its first Hawk UV Dimatix piezoelectric inkjet system – an early foray into UV-curable inkjet technology that positioned DPi ahead of industry trends. This early innovation allowed DPi to deliver instant curing and high-quality variable printing on coated and non-porous substrates, offering new capabilities to its customers.

By the mid-2010s, DPi partnered with Kyocera to introduce the Hawk 600V, incorporating Kyocera’s cutting-edge piezoelectric printheads for 600 dpi resolution, UV and water-based inks, and high-speed output suitable for mailing, packaging, and industrial labeling applications.

Celebrating 30 years in 2016, DPi launched the Hawk M6 Series – a major upgrade featuring a 50% speed increase while maintaining sharp 600 dpi output. The M6's modularity and adaptability to various presses allowed clients greater flexibility in production environments.

In 2021, DPi introduced the Hawk M7, further improving maintenance and remote support capabilities. The M7 featured automated service modes, internal head capping, and simplified maintenance that empowered operators while reducing downtime – a reflection of the industry's growing emphasis on automation and system uptime.

Most recently, in 2025, DPi unveiled its most compact and cost-efficient system to date: the SWIFT. Designed for ease of integration and affordability, the SWIFT delivers high-quality variable data printing in a small footprint, making advanced inkjet technology accessible to a broader range of production environments.

Throughout its nearly four-decade journey, DPi has demonstrated an ongoing commitment to innovation, service, and customer-driven solutions – playing a vital role in bringing variable data inkjet printing to mainstream industrial applications.

Conclusion and Emerging Trends

The journey of industrial inkjet technology showcases relentless innovation aimed at meeting the ever-growing demands for speed, quality, and versatility in printing. From the first continuous inkjet nozzles that needed oscilloscopes and high voltage to aim a stream, to the current MEMS-fabricated printhead modules firing millions of droplets per second, the progress is staggering. Printheads have become faster, denser, and smarter, while inks have become more specialized and reliable for different tasks.

Emerging trends suggest this evolution is far from over. In the coming years, we can expect even higher resolution printheads (1200 dpi native heads are already appearing), faster press speeds approaching those of offset presses, and more adoption of inkjet in industrial manufacturing (for example, printing directly on electronics, or applying coatings/additives in manufacturing processes). Ink formulations will continue to improve in environmental sustainability – water-based inks are being developed for applications that previously relied on solvent or UV, in order to reduce VOCs and ease regulatory compliance. For instance, there is active development in aqueous inks for corrugated packaging and flexible plastics, using nano-pigment dispersion and special pretreatments to rival solvent/UV performance but in a more eco-friendly way.

Another trend is improved automation and integration. Modern industrial inkjet devices are often part of a larger production line (mailing, packaging, etc.), so integration with conveyors, web transports, and finishing equipment is crucial. Companies like DPi have shown the importance of robust controllers and software – future systems will likely feature more AI-driven maintenance (predictive diagnostics for when a nozzle might clog or a part needs replacement) and seamless data connectivity for Industry 4.0 environments.

Finally, the line between “printer” and “manufacturing machine” is blurring. Inkjet’s ability to deposit materials precisely has led to uses in printed electronics (laying down conductive inks), 3D printing (building objects layer by layer with functional fluids), biomedical printing, and more. Industrial inkjet’s legacy and ongoing evolution position it as a foundational technology not just in graphics printing, but in manufacturing at large – truly an example of how an innovation can expand far beyond its original scope.

 

 

 

Sources:

 

Andrew Neckar
Previous

Supply Chain Disruptions Fuel On-Demand Digital Printing Adoption
Next

How Tariffs Are Disrupting Global Paper Supply Chains