The piezo inkjet printer’s droplet injection is regulated to micron levels of accuracy to achieve up to 98% color gamut coverage as opposed to the 85% achievable with traditional thermal foaming technology. The piezoelectric crystal responds to voltage changes (usually 20-50 volts) in a 5-15 microsecond period, displacing a nozzle with 30,000 high-rate vibrations per second to precisely spray tiny ink droplets of 1-3 picoliters onto the medium’s surface. For example, the Epson PrecisionCore series increases the print resolution to 4800×2400 DPI through the enhancement of the piezo element alignment density (1,200 nozzles per inch), and the increase of the red saturation (wavelength 620-750 nm) and blue (450-495 nm) by 40%. The waste rate of ink is reduced to less than 5% at the same time. In industrial uses, for example, in textile printing, piezoelectric technology enables highly concentrated pigment inks with viscosities between 20 and 50 mPa·s, color adhesion to cotton fibers with ISO 105-C06 level 4 washable resistance, and production rates of up to 150 m/min, 300% more efficient than conventional screen printing.
In order to deliver the maximum color gamut, the extended color gamut scheme CMYK+ (i.e., with orange, green, purple addition) is used by the piezoelectric inkjet printer, expanding the color gamut from the normal 16 million colors to 107 million colors. For instance, FujifilM Dimatix SAMBA print head consists of 1280 discrete nozzles that can spray droplets of ink of size 2.5 picoliters with the linear speed of 50 meters per second under a condition of stable temperature of 25 ° C ±0.5 ° C and positioning precision less than ±5 microns with nanoscale pigment dispersion technology (particle diameter <100 nm). The ΔE value of color difference is controlled within 1.2, and the 97% Pantone certified color matching rate is realized. It has been demonstrated through research that when HP Latex printers with piezoelectric technology print neon colors, the color brightness is 35% higher than solvent-based inks, and the drying time is reduced to 30 seconds (3 minutes with traditional technology), and energy consumption is reduced to 0.15 KWH per square meter.
Regarding dynamic color control, Canon VariDrop technology can vary the drop volume in real time by altering the piezoelectric drive waveform (frequency 1-100 kHz) (3 adjustable levels: 3/6/12 picoll), thus enabling the same nozzle to print large high-saturation droplets (70% enhancement in coverage) as well as fine gradient points with accuracy of 0.67 picoll. Roland DG TrueVIS VG3 series data taken in 2023 show that its 8-color piezoelectric system doubles the golden gloss from 60 GU to 95 GU by depositing a white ink base (0.8 microns) and an overlying transparent oil layer (1.52 refractive index) while printing metallic color. Its color gamut is 98.5% of the ISO Coated v2 standard. This sort of technology has already found commercial instances in the field of high-end art reproduction where a single item is being offered for more than $500,000, for instance, British Museum’s copy of Van Gogh’s Sunflowers by Mimaki piezoelectric printer at a 99.3% brushstroke accuracy and UV weather resistance for over 200 years.
Market statistics back up the 17% rise in global shipments of piezo inkjet printer in 2022, 72% centered in the domain of advertising signage (120 million liters of ink annually) and printing packaging ($34 billion annual output value). The Kodak Prosper 6000 series uses piezoelectric inkjet modules (11,520 nozzles per unit) to achieve high-speed printing at 650 meters per minute and variable data printing technology to reduce the production cost of customized packaging by 40% and the return on investment from 18 months to 10 months. Of note is that the medical imaging field has begun to use piezoelectric inkjet technology to print CT contrast agents (iodine concentration 350 mg/mL), and through controlling the concentration error rate of 0.1%, the accuracy of tumor detection has been improved to 92.4%, 11 percentage points higher than the traditional manual coating process.