20 Years of LED Precision Printing in Europe
02/11/2009
London, November, 2009: OKI launched first business printers in Europe using LED technology in 1989
Light Emitting Diodes - LEDs – have progressed in leaps and bounds since they were invented in the United States in 1962. One of the first organisations to look beyond applications as a light source, OKI Printing Solutions brought its first printers using the robust precision of LED technology to the European markets in 1989. The OL 400 / 800 Series introduced an LED array instead of the conventional and complex combination of laser, lens and multiple mirrors. With fewer moving parts, LED technology soon proved its advantages for business printing. Since then, close to 4 million LED devices – printers, multifunctional products and faxes – using OKI’s LED technology have been sold throughout EMEA. “You can say that we as an organisation have been successful thanks to LED printing, because our customers appreciate the high quality and robust precision at a very reasonable price,” explains Tetsuhei Kawamura, CEO for OKI Printing Solutions, the importance of LED for the company. “From today’s perspective you can also add the environmental benefits LEDs bring – I am confident that these qualities will continue to set us apart from other manufacturers.”
In principle, LED printers use the same steps as a laser printer: By illuminating the LEDs create an image on the image drum. Toner is then attracted electrostatically – and sticks to exactly those areas where the light has hit the surface of the drum. As the paper rolls past, the toner is transferred to the paper and fixed by heat. Kawamura remembers: “We were looking for a technology that was reliable while delivering very high quality results. When we developed our first LED printer, which we launched in 1987 only in Japan, we discovered an additional, unsuspected benefit: Fewer moving parts meant that the entire product could be smaller yet deliver the same, if not better performance than laser printers.” The LEDs are arranged in so called print heads, rods as wide as the paper to be printed on. OKI Printing Solutions is a pioneer in developing high density arrays, which are made up of more than 15,000 LEDs in a single 5mm wide strip, allowing for high definition printing at 1200 dpi without loss of printing speed.
When comparing LED technology with lasers, one factor weighs heavily in favour of LEDs: The individual modules of LED array plus corresponding image drum are so slim that they can be arranged next to each other in a colour printer. As a result, the device can print at high resolutions of 1200 dpi – yet the device itself remains compact. The laser printer, on the other hand, uses a complex and rather bulky arrangement of laser, rotating mirrors and lenses. The motors, which are necessary to rotate the mirrors, limit the print speed that can be achieved and for larger paper sizes the distance between laser/mirror/lens and the image drum needs to be increased accordingly – making the printer significantly larger. “An A3 LED printer has the same footprint as many A4 laser printers. That makes it an impressive 35% smaller than most A3 laser printers, no matter whether colour or black & white,” comments Kawamura, responsible for product marketing at OKI Printing Solutions.
There are other advantages to LED technology in printers: In addition to the compact size, arranging the LED heads horizontally next to each other allows for the printing to happen in a single pass, avoiding the need for multiple passes used in many laser printers. The flat paper path enables remarkable media flexibility – business cards, heavy stock, structured paper, brochures and even banners of 1.20 m can be printed on OKI’s desktop devices. Another area where LED technology has a positive impact is the print speed. Users are often unaware that laser printers lose significantly in speed, as the single light source struggles to reproduce the increasing number of dots per inch - DPI. LED printers use one LED per dot, irrespective of resolution. As a result, print speeds remain constantly high, even in colour.
The true Achilles heel of laser printers is the multiple delicate and moving parts. This makes them more sensitive to shock and can have an impact on print quality. The sturdy construction of LED print heads ensures such a consistently outstanding print quality that OKI Printing Solutions is offering the only free 3 year warranty across all products that is available today.
- ends -
About OKI Europe Limited
OKI Printing Solutions, brand name for OKI Europe, is a global business-to-business brand dedicated to creating professional in-house printed communications products, applications and services which are designed to increase the efficiency of today's and tomorrow's businesses. The company's annual turnover across the EMEA region is 102.0 billion yen (FY07), accounting for 54.3% of OKI Printing Solutions' worldwide turnover which represented record year-on-year growth of 10%. OKI Printing Solutions is well-established as one of EMEA's leading print brands, in terms of value and units shipped. The group's product portfolio comprises six distinct segments: colour and mono printers, multifunctional devices, which combine printing, copying, scanning and faxing functionalities, as well as Serial Dot Matrix printers, faxes and specialty printers for point-of-sales and manufacturing. Established in 1990, the EMEA group now employs 1,200 people in 21 production sites and sales offices and is represented in 60 countries throughout the region.
OKI Printing Solutions is the brand name of OKI Data Corporation, a subsidiary of Tokyo-based Oki Electric Industry Co. Ltd., established in 1881 and Japan's first telecommunications manufacturer.
