Xaar focuses on the rising ceramic sector

Revenues were up 20% on the same period last year but remained in line with the board's expectations at the Cambridge-based business.

India, being one of the largest ceramic tile producers in the world, the use of digital printing for decoration of ceramic tiles is growing pace fully. With the recent launch of Xaar’s GS12 1001 series inkjet printhead, which is specially designed for ceramic tile production, Xaar has focused on the ceramic tile industry. The first printers with the GS12 1001 printheads will be unveiled in the month of September at the Technigrilla exhibition in Italy.

The 1001 GS12 jets larger (12-84 picolitre) drops than the company's established GS6 printhead and offers output speeds up to 100% faster than the older model. “The Xaar 1001 is revolutionising the ceramics industry,” says Bob Bobertz, general manager, Xaar Asia-Pacific. “Over 56% of digital ceramic tile decoration printers sold today use the Xaar 1001 to deliver reliable and consistent high-quality results.”

Xaar 128 and Xaar Proton are the most widely used printheads in graphics arts sector with over 2.4 crorenozzles delivered to India. The sales into the graphic arts sector were down on the same period in 2011 with Xaar citing the maturity and competitiveness of the sector for the drop. Macart Equipment, Colorjet India and A digital are Xaar's key clients who manufacture wide format kit for graphic art industry in India.

The manufacturer's £22m capacity expansion programme, which was announced in 2010, has now been completed with ceramic printhead capacity up nine-fold from 5,000 units up to 45,000.