Canon has announced a new inkjet ink, Canon UVgel. This new ink promises superfast drying times, a wider color gamut and is said to be more environmentally friendly than other or UV inks. The ink comes with a new ¨next generation¨ piezoelectric printhead with acoustic sampling technology that monitors nozzle performance on the fly during printing.  According to Canon this results in higher and more consistent print quality.
At SGIA Canon showed a prototype of the UVGel printer, based on the Canon Arizona wide format printers. This new printer should become available next spring. If UVgel will also be suitable for other solutions such as production inkjet we do not know.
Read more about this new development in the press release below.

Canon U.S.A., Inc. Announces Revolutionary New Technology That Will Transform Wide Format Roll-to-Roll Printing

MELVILLE, N.Y., September 14, 2016 – Canon U.S.A., Inc. today announced its new UVgel printing technology. This unique technology will soon be featured in a new line of roll-to-roll printers that will offer large format print providers an unprecedented combination of productivity, image quality, application range, automation and low cost of operation.

“We are very excited to show this revolutionary new game-changing technology at SGIA,” said Toyotsugu Kuwamura, executive vice president and general manager, Business Imaging Solutions Group, Canon U.S.A., Inc. “This new technology will power an upcoming generation of roll-to-roll printers that will help our customers increase their print production efficiency while lowering their operating costs, enabling them to profitably grow their business.”

Key elements and benefits of the UVgel technology:

• A radically new UV curable ink from Canon that instantly gels on contact with the media, resulting in precise dot placement and area control for consistent high-quality images at high speed
• The large color gamut of solvent inks combined with the environmental benefits and safety profile of latex and UV inks
• Ultra-thin ink dispersion with almost no discernible physical profile and the lowest ink consumption rate can provide up to a 40 percent reduction in printing costs compared to eco-solvent and latex

These features all result in cost-effective, non-toxic, durable, color fast, high-quality prints for almost any flexible media application.

This amazing new UVgel technology incorporates several new hardware technology developments from Canon:

• Advanced, “next generation” piezoelectric printhead technology employing patented acoustic sampling technology that monitors nozzle performance on-the-fly during printing
• A unique LED UV curing sub-system that operates completely independently from the printing system ensuring identical jetting to curing timing for every droplet for unprecedented uniformity across the printed image
• An LED-based UV system that cures without adding any heat to the media whatsoever, making it easy to print on the thinnest, most heat-sensitive flexible media
• Continuous, on-the-fly, nozzle performance compensation facilitates confident unattended printing and reduced print waste

Canon’s new UVgel printing technology will be at the core of a family of new roll-to-roll printing products, the first of which will be a high productivity 64 inch roll-to-roll printer to be released in the Spring of 2017. The significant investment in this new technology demonstrates Canon’s continued commitment to be a leader in digital graphics markets. Canon has already proven itself to be a leader in the UV flatbed market with its highly awarded, market leading Océ Arizona series of flatbed printers.

Canon will be showcasing this new UVgel technology in its booth (#1536) at the 2016 SGIA Expo, September 14-16 in Las Vegas.