The company expects to beat forecasts for the half-year, with an estimated profit of more than 2m, compared to a loss of 3.3m in the same period of 2003.

A spokesman said that the company had been turned around after the poor first half of 2003 "because manufacturing costs have been controlled and yields have gone up".

The Cambridge firm has also announced two joint ventures to print conductive metal inks onto circuit boards, taking ink-jet technology into the electronics market.

A joint development agreement has been signed with Royston-based Xennia Technology to combine its range of metal inks with Xaar's OmniDot print head.

A link-up with Philadelphia-based Rohm and Haas Electronic Materials will develop processes and materials for printed circuit boards.

Xaar deputy chief executive Nigel Berry said: "These programmes are aimed at addressing the fundamental problems of applying ink-jet printing to this new field and are not expected to produce significant revenues in the immediate future."

Story by Josh Brooks