Solid inkjet is not a new technology. It was developed 30 years ago. Xeror now own the technology and is planning a more aggressive campaign to popularize this product toward the art and photographic fields.

The basic make up of solid inkjet is employ a solid ink stick which employs chemicals very similar to regular wax, that the printer melts the wax and shoot out through print head exjection holes. The concept of delivery of wax is similar to traditional inkjet printer.

There are advantages and disadvantage of this technology.

Solid inkjet give a bright, vibrant color, much improve over liquid inkjet and toner powder, and the color quality comes very close to professional offset printing. It can print on varies surfaces. The stick has longer expiration period. The manufacturing process of the cartridge produces much less harmful chemical. Once printed on the media, the color stays true longer, what that means is the color is less affected by natural elements such as UV or oxygen.

While there is certain advantage, there are distinct drawbacks. First of all is the cost. The per page cost is significantly higher than inkjet and toner. It takes longer time for the printer to head up and print from a cold start. When the printer is in “sleep mode”, most units keep a small pool of each color wax within the printheadthus clogging the printhead more frequently. Lamination becomes difficult due to the nature of the wax base technology, wax is a medium that is hard to have a gluing effect.