Novel Nozzles — Breakthrough printing technology delivers record-breaking speed

Jul. 2005 -- It's been five years in the making, fueled by a $1.4 billion strategic R&D investment. The payoff? Scalable printing technology: A new way to deliver record-breaking printing speed and precision from HP.

It's all due to an HP design innovation that fits 3,900 nozzles on a single printhead, more than ever possible. With more nozzles, ink fires onto the page much faster, which greatly speeds printing. More nozzles also allow more dots of ink to eject onto a given space — and to do so more accurately — greatly improving image quality. It all adds up to increased speed and high-precision printing for the HP Photosmart 3300, 3200 and 3100 All-in-One series of printers — with two of the world's fastest (1) home photo printing devices: the HP Photosmart 3310 All-in-One and the HP Photosmart 8250 Photo Printers. Each delivers 4x6 photos in as fast as 14 seconds — cutting current print speeds by almost half. (2) Introduced on July 11, (3) these printers take advantage of the new scalable printing technology that's meant to catapult HP's leadership in the printer market years ahead of competitors.

What does the "scalable" mean in scalable printing technology? It means the technology scales across select HP printers for the home and office today, and commercial settings in the future. The ability to scale the technology across product lines, from low-end to high-end printer products, leads to faster development cycles for new products — allowing us to bring these products to you faster.

A printing system ahead of its time

Scalable printing technology marks a milestone in HP's 21-year printing history and truly changes the game for inkjet printing. It's not the first time HP has done so. In 1984, we introduced the first mass-marketed personal inkjet printer: the HP ThinkJet. HP-developed thermal inkjet technology delivered a high-quality, low-price personal printing experience, spelling the end for noisy dot-matrix printers — and the beginning of HP's legendary leadership in imaging and printing.

It also marked the beginning of HP's continuing commitment to focus our imaging and printing investments in areas where we can have a significant impact and deliver real value to our customers. In fact, overall, HP helps set the pace for innovation in the industry today — generating 11 patents per day — faster than any time in our history. That adds up to 25,000 patents, and counting.

So, with a track record of innovation, HP inventors set out to change printing history, yet again. This time that not only meant changing the ink delivery system and printhead design, but the way the printhead was actually fabricated.

Rather than welding printhead parts together after each was produced, a new "photolithographic" fabrication method produced a fully-integrated printhead made as one, perfectly aligned unit. Simply put, higher-precision fabrication leads to higher-precision printing capabilities — at speeds that inkjet designers back in 1984 could only dream about.

This new ink delivery system is extremely efficient, so you can get the most out of each ink cartridge. Brilliant new HP Vivera Inks, combined with HP Advanced Photo Paper, result in instantly dry, stackable photo prints that resist water.

Heads up: Two new home photo printers and more

Showcasing the new HP scalable printing technology are two of the world's fastest home photo printers: The HP Photosmart 3310 All-in-One and the HP Photosmart 8250 Photo Printer — ideal for the consumer who wants to quickly print batches of photos in the convenience of their own home. These industry-first printers feature x individual cartridges and produce beautiful photos and crisp text at blazing speeds — 4x6-inch photos print in as fast as 14 seconds for as little as 24 cents a print, (4) using an HP Photo Value Pack. Cost includes all six inks and photo paper.

Leveraging the "scalability" of this new printing technology, HP will be launching the world's fastest desktop color business printer: the HP Officejet Pro. This will enable small and midsize businesses to print up to twice the speed at a color cost-per-page that's 30 percent lower than color laser printers. (5) Watch for future announcements as HP takes scalable printing technology into the commercial space.

Other HP printing innovations announced this month include Auto Sense Technology, which helps eliminate wasted ink or paper. Paper-sensing via barcode-like technology identifies the size and type of photo paper to deliver the best-quality prints. An auto sensing tray also confirms that there are enough sheets of paper to complete each print job. And an enhanced paper sensor helps to ensure that the image is always printed on the correct side of the paper. These features help drive print quality up and costs down.

These are all examples of how HP inventors continue to bridge the gap between ideas and solutions — with new printing system technology that's sure to turn heads across the industry.