FORMULATING FUNCTION FROM PHILOSOPHY

In 1946, Ricoh’s founder Kiyoshi Ichimura captured a simple philosophy – ‘Love your neighbour. Love your country. Love your work.’ This slogan has guided a global technology enterprise through successive waves of change over nearly nine decades.

As the world emerged from its darkest of days this belief system shaped Ricoh’s early identity. Focusing the company on the rebuilding of society, empowering people through technology and making work more fulfilling. James Burbidge has always been fascinated by how acclaimed corporate philosophies can shape the day-to-day actions of a company. Working within the industrial-printing team at Ricoh, it is very apparent that these core beliefs are more than just words. No more so than with Ricoh Printing Solutions Europe (RPSE) Ink Partnership Program (IPP).

Successful outcomes in industrial-inkjet applications require multiple partners, processes and technologies to integrate effectively. It all starts with the fluid, which determines the printhead and waveform and – once combined with the chosen substrate – the fluid largely dictates the success of the process. The IPP operates as a bridge between partners and processes with the fluid placed centre stage. The programme cuts machine development time, freeing Ricoh’s research and development resources of its original equipment manufactures (OEMs) and enables faster, better and more profitable outcomes. 

Thinking back to Ichimura’s simple yet powerful philosophy, it is far easier to say than to actually deliver. The solution is surprisingly simple. Ricoh employs knowledgeable, talented and enthusiastic engineers. In combination with world-leading equipment and a licence to experiment a natural environment is created. Fulfilment grows and the company’s engineering teams’ love of their work shines through.

Working with ink companies, Ricoh’s IPP team analyses the fluid and tunes it to the selected printhead. The team runs compatibility tests, measures elasticity and in-nozzle viscosity. In addition, tests are run to optimise waveforms, assess print stability and post-print process to optimise the application specifications.

One of the complex steps performed in the IPP process is managing nozzle open time. For this, Ricoh adopted laser doppler vibrometer (LDV) technology. It also engineered unique test equipment for the purpose of detailed study. Assessing nozzle open time is a challenge that is often still based on guesswork. Ricoh’s LDV technology provides certainty in assessments. It creates an opportunity to study the viscosity of the fluid as it changes within the nozzle directly after droplet ejection and in the critical time after.

Ricoh’s rheology suite is equipped with a range of static measurement tools common to inkjet evaluation. However, in the printing process, the ink is not static. It has dynamic behaviours created under complex conditions. Complex rheology – the study of non-Newtonian behaviours – requires a different approach. The company’s TriPAV provides dynamic measurements. They enable understanding of the rheology of fluids under conditions that mimic those experienced within the printhead channels. With its Trimaster, data can be gathered for extensional viscosity and filament break up behaviours in low-viscosity fluids. These aspects are critical to the understanding of satellite generation and for retaining good nozzle plate condition.

Gaining a good level of fluid understanding and its interaction with Ricoh’s printheads – coupled with Real Time Modelling and simulation software – allow its engineers to automatically generate entry level optimised waveforms. This leads to answering the one question raised by every client – “What is my expected printhead lifetime with this ink?”

This is not just a one-way street of analysis and selection. True partnership in the spirit of ‘love your neighbour’ requires real collaboration with the ink manufacturers and a two-way open knowledge exchange. This is often an iterative process sometimes requiring the ink, waveform and process conditions to undergo multiple changes and adaptions to overcome challenges along the way.

“The team runs compatibility tests, measures elasticity and in-nozzle viscosity”

As in many areas, the programme was formed through necessity. It began as the normal process for analysing the suitability of a selected fluid when engaging in client applications. This approach produced a library of inks which could later be drawn on by Ricoh’s engineers. This offers predefined performance for applications and suitability with a selected printhead. Ricoh witnessed the value to an OEM of the pre-characterisation of a fluid that could speed up development time, reduce R&D effort and realise commercial success at a far faster rate. It emboldened the company to adopt the methodology more broadly.

In many aspects, the IPP programme concerns more than just the benefit it brings to Ricoh, its partners and clients. It is an investment in the wider inkjet community. The aim is to reduce some of the barriers present within industrial inkjet. It allows the company’s OEMs to perform at their best. Ricoh has a shared love in the inkjet community. However, this is just one part of its drive to be a force for good. The company is building sustainable growth and a wider adoption of inkjet within industrial processes – important for the whole industry. 

From an ecological viewpoint, inkjet supports the global effort to protect the planet, as it is a cleaner alternative to legacy analogue methods. In textile printing, water demand can drop by around 60–90% (technology dependent). Further, by eliminating the production and cleaning of screens and plates, many harmful chemicals are removed. In addition, print-on-demand (POD) curbs waste, while decentralised digital manufacturing techniques cut transport emissions. 

For consumers, digital adds more than sustainability, offering broader ranges, rapid design changes, personalisation and printing at the point of demand. Choice grows without inflating the environmental load.

Industrial inkjet works when collaboration is genuine. The IPP began as a practical way to de-risk projects and became the internal playbook. It consists of compatibility testing, LDV insight, complex rheology, waveform, printhead lifetime prediction and process printing on the target substrate. Each step removes the guesswork and gives Ricoh’s partners valuable time back to support their customer base and grow the adoption of industrial inkjet. 

Ichimura’s original philosophy has steered Ricoh’s innovative technology over nine decades and even steered this article to print. IPP elevates collaboration over guesswork. It is science with heart and application-specific engineering that gets great fluids to print faster, cleaner and more profitably.