Features Printing Production Inkjet
Xaar Adds To Aqueous Portfolio with 5501

Xaar, which develops industrial inkjet technology, introduced the Xaar 5501, a new addition to its portfolio of aqueous print heads, which complements the existing Xaar 1201 and Xaar 5601, and provides OEMs looking for an aqueous print head from Xaar with a wider choice. This is the first product resulting from Xaar’s collaboration with Xerox, aiming to provide high print quality combined with low printing and integration costs.  

The new Xaar 5501 is built on proven bulk piezo technology in conjunction with Xaar Drive Electronics. Xaar describes it as a lightweight and high resolution 1,200 dpi print head that is ideal for a range of water-based digital printing applications, such as textiles (digital direct to garment, dye sublimation transfer and soft signage) and graphics (banners, posters, displays).

It has 5,544 nozzles, each producing five pL sub-drops giving a 115 mm print width. The Xaar 5501’s robust construction, according to the company, makes it compatible with a range of fluids including aqueous inks, low viscosity UV or solvent-based inks.

The Xaar 5501 uses a micro alignment system to position and align print heads via software. This allows rapid and easy printer set up, explains Xaar, therefore streamlining print head commissioning and reducing downtime overall. In addition, it does not require an ink recirculation system; which helps with lower integration costs and makes it very suitable to use in scanning applications such as printing wide-format graphics and textiles. In addition, for high productivity applications, single-pass printing is possible.

“We are delighted to be bringing the Xaar 5501 to market,” said Jason Remnant, Senior Product Manager at Xaar. “With this addition to our aqueous portfolio we now have a full range of solutions to meet the majority of applications which need low viscosity-compatible inkjet print heads. With its simple ink supply system, the Xaar 5501 is a very cost effective solution for scanning textile and wide-format graphics printers, and will be widely available to OEMs later this year.”