Widely recognised as one of the world’s leading manufacturers of piezo-based drop-on-demand inkjet technologies, Xaar is now driving print innovation across the global ceramics industry with its development of water-based Digital Glaze technology. Xaar’s water based digital glaze has moved from early laboratory trials to full industrial deployment, with the technology now being used to deliver premium decorative effects, high end customisation and the flexibility needed for advanced products such as large slabs and sintered stone. The company believes that by eliminating many of the limitations associated with traditional belt and steel belt moulds, water based digital glaze will help the sector shift from price competition to value driven differentiation, by unlocking new levels of creativity, efficiency and production performance.
XAAR’s inkjet printheads and technologies are ideally suited to support this transformation for manufacturers. Ultra High Viscosity Technology allows jetting of fluids with significantly higher pigment loads and larger particles, including glass frits, through a much broader viscosity window than traditional printheads can handle. This enables the digital production of deep textures, matte and gloss combinations, intricate reliefs, metallics and lustre finishes, as well as high thickness glaze layers in a single pass. The XAAR Aquinox printhead, with true through flow architecture powered by XAAR’s TF Technology, ensures reliable jetting of challenging aqueous formulations with up to 50 percent solids and particle sizes up to D90(v) ≤ 3 microns. This extremely high laydown capability supports glaze deposition levels up to 350gsm from a single printhead, creating new creative and functional opportunities for tile manufacturers adopting water based digital glaze processes.