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HP banks on single ink
Printer manufacturer Hewlett-Packard now wants to use a technology for its
photo printers that supplies ink to the printheads via a system of tubes. Such
systems have previously only been used in the manufacturer’s business inkjets.
In the US, HP has presented a number of printers and multifunctional units with
this technology. The company announced that the manufacturing process for
printheads has been improved so that 3900 nozzles can now be used in one
printhead. Starting on August 15, the new PhotoSmart 8250 is to be available in
stores in Germany; HP is calling it the “fastest photo printer in the world.” It
will cost just over 200 euros.According to HP, however, the superlative only concerns the standard or draft
mode; in the highest quality, the PhotoSmart needs 80 seconds for a 10×15 photo.
This speed is four times faster than previous HP models but still ten
seconds slower than Canon printers. In the past few months, HP has been losing
market shares to this competitor in particular, even losing its market
leadership.Experts believe that HP’s previous strategy of integrating the printheads in
the ink cartridges, essentially making them disposable products, is one reason
HP has lost ground. For instance, HP has only been able to put 200 print nozzles
per color in one such printhead, while Canon has up to 765 nozzles per
printhead. With this new technology, HP wants to have up to 650 nozzles per ink
color in one printhead. A new test of A3 photo printers in c’t 16/05 (at stands
on July 25th) shows how much slower HP’s old combined printheads are in high-end
printers.However, HP models with combined tanks as well as the high-end photo printer
segments of competitors Epson and Canon print with up to eight inks for expanded
colors and additional photo grey and photo black for black-and-white photos. The
new HP tube systems only have six standard colors for photo prints — a lighter
photo cyan and photo magenta in addition to the process colors of cyan, magenta,
yellow, and black. The spectrum of colors is limited here to CMYK, with the
lighter pastel hues improved with the addition of these “photo colors.” In
September, two multifunctional devices with this tube technology are to be sold
in Germany
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