What is Memjet Printer Technology?
Silverbrook's Long-Awaited Printing Breakthrough May Appear Soon
Nov 10, 2009
Printer reviewers and technology-watchers have been buzzing for a number of years about Memjet printer technology, which has been developed by Silverbrook Research of Balmain, Australia.
Memjet promises to combine the best of both inkjet and laser printers, potentially making both obsolete. However, delays in bringing a Memjet printer to market have led to confusion and skepticism among consumers.
How Memjet is Different From Other Printers
Unlike the print heads of regular inkjet printers, Memjet print heads span the length of an entire printed page. Each head is made up of a continuous row of 1mm by 20mm silicon print chips. Each of these print chips, in turn, consists of 6400 ink nozzles. Silverbrook estimates this gives Memjet heads a nozzle density 17 times greater than the conventional inkjets currently available.
At the same time, since Memjet print heads remain stationary during printing, they allow for much faster printing speeds, approximately 60 pages per minute for letter-size sheets. Thus Memjet printers promise – in theory – to deliver inkjet-quality prints at laser-printer speeds.
The Current Status of Memjet Printer Technology
Memjet has been in development since the mid-1990s, but it was only in March 2007 that Silverbrook began showing off the new technology to potential manufacturers. The industry buzz reached some consumers, who expected a Memjet-based product soon after.
Since then, Silverbrook has been tweaking the technology, but representatives have been tight-lipped about what company or companies are planning to incorporate Memjet technology into their consumer printing products. No actual product was ever announced.
Industry watchers like Jim Lyons speculate that traditional printer manufacturers have been snubbing Memjet. It's felt that Silverbrook's likely licensees are established companies, which manufacture other electronics, looking to use the new technology to break into the printer market.
Will Memjet Be Revolutionary or Vaporware?
Silverbrook showed off Memjet at the 2009 Consumer Electronics Show, and had hoped to have a Memjet printer to market at the end of 2009. But those plans have been delayed. That, and Silverbrook's secrecy, have led some consumers to doubt whether Memjet printers will ever materialize.
Veteran printer reviewer M. David Stone, an editor at PCMag.com, did confirm in August 2009 that the technology is viable. "I suspect there won't be any such announcement [about a Memjet product]," Stone writes, "until a product is very close to being available, with the company possibly waiting until it's ready to ship the product on the day it's announced."
If Memjet's potential is realized, the technology may well revolutionize consumer printing. Having waited more than ten years to perfect their technology, it is perhaps understandable that Silverbrook is playing coy until Memjet can be dramatically debuted.
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