The UK-based company behind the Lumejet S200 has secured funds from the Technology Strategy Board’s Smart programme to help develop its new application, LumeBar.
"It is very gratifying to win the maximum award against such stiff competition," said LumeJet founder Trevor Elworthy of the award, which supports SMEs with high-growth potential.
The award highlighted the current interest in photonics, which was recently identified as a key enabling technology for business by the EU, said Elworthy.
"LumeBar is at R&D stage and it will be at least two to three years before it appears as an upgrade path to the S200," he said. Elworthy explained that the new device would output around 3,000 pages an hour but declined to put a price on the tchnology.
He added that the LumeBar was "radically different" technology and would be aimed at the top end markets for high-quality photo-book production in runs of up to 10,000.
LumeBar uses LumeJet’s photonic printhead technology, created for high-speed industrial printing of high-quality documents such as photo books, inline labelling and packaging and plastic electronics.
Rather than a moving print head, as in the current LumeJet S200, LumeBar comprises several thousand individually addressable micron-sized LED emitters to provide a ‘page-wide’ digital print bar that exposes directly onto designated areas of photo-sensitive media.
Each LumeBar will be custom-built, tailored for wavelength and spot size, and e specifically designed for fast throughput and higher output.
It follows news four weeks ago that Altaimage was the world’s first site to beta test the LumeJet S200 ultra-high-resolution printer at its London Docklands base. Commercial availability of the device is due later this year and it will cost around £145,000.
