Schoeppler, who joined the wholly owned Fujifilm subsidiary in 2004 as vice president of strategic business development, takes on the role of John C. Batterton, who is retiring.

Fujifilm Corporation chairman and corporate vice president, Nobuaki Inoue, said Dimatix is "a much stronger company today than it was when John took the position of chief executive".

Inoue added: "He has given us a new and strong foundation on which to build to become a world-leading provider of inkjet printheads for commercial and industrial printing."

Prior to his roles at Fujifilm Dimatix, Schoeppler held senior management positions at HP, Lumileds Lighting, and Agilent Technologies.

Inoue said: "Fujifilm Corporation and the board of Fujifilm Dimatix have great confidence in his ability to maintain our remarkable momentum, and to be a fair and inclusive advocate for all areas at Dimatix."

Last month, Fujifilm Dimatix claimed a world-first by announcing that its cartridge-based Dimatix Materials Printer has been used in the first known demonstration of inkjet technology for the manufacturing of photovoltaic solar cells.