Epson is to build a new factory to triple production of its thin film piezo inkjet heads.
Work begins on the new plant alongside existing manufacturing facilities in Akita in November and is scheduled for completion in December 2023. Cost is put at ¥ 3.5 billion (£20 million).
Most production will be aimed at Epson’s desktop and office printers with demand for home and work use forecast to grow over both the medium and long term. This has been spurred by the shift to work from home that took off during the pandemic. Epson says there is growing demand too for high capacity ink tank printers in north America and elsewhere.
This is where the new factory will come in, ensuring that it has the production capacity to meet this growth in demand.
The development will create extra capacity to meet demand from third parties for the PrecisionCore thin film printheads, increasing the number of OEMs using Epson technology. By tradition Epson has kept close control of its technology and which OEMs are able to use it, partly because it needs to meet its own requirements for the printheads. The company says it will be able to “strengthen its product line up” alongside increasing third-party sales.
Epson is already working with partners in biotech and pharmaceutical and food companies on applications for the PrecisionCore technology. There are other users producing electronic components.
Once the new factory is open, all production of the PrecisionCore heads will shift to the Akita site, thereby increasing efficiency with the layout of the plant designed to optimise “human productivity and space productivity”.
The new plant will provide three floors giving a floor space of more than 10,000m2. The company has pledged to take on more staff without precise numbers. It currently employs 987 at the site.
The PrecisionCore printhead is a thin film head that can be manufactured in quantity. It began to be used on Epson products, initially the Surepress label press and then its wide format printers around seven years ago. It offers up to 1200dpi with different versions matched to the final application.
