The manufacturer said the move comes in response to the expansion of digital printing in the commercial and industrial sectors.

Epson has already been selling inkjet printheads in the F1440 series for large-format printers but said the completion of a new factory in Japan last summer has expanded its print chip production capacity.

It has therefore decided to reinforce its external sales offering with the addition of the new S3200 series of PrecisionCore printheads and the new L1440 series of MACH printheads.

The printheads in the S3200 series, which offer 600dpi resolution (300dpi x two rows), are said to embody differentiated technology that enables “outstanding image quality, productivity, durability and printhead scalability”.

The L1440 series heads, meanwhile, offer 360dpi resolution (180dpi x two rows), support the use of up to eight colours and offer a miniaturised form factor for use in multi-head configurations.

Epson Europe head of product marketing Marc Tinkler said: “We’ve been concentrating on making our own products in various growth segments over the past few years, and we’ve been doing well.

“But our overall goal is to be able to convert as much as possible of the analogue printing world to the digital printing world, and we’ve realised that we can’t do everything just by ourselves, but that we have some ideal, really good technology which is the core innovation that we can offer.

“We have therefore come to the conclusion that we can go forward in those spaces where we exist today, but in order to offer and develop more of the industrial printing applications, we need to work with partners, or companies need to use our technology.

“To offer these printheads in those categories, or those applications where other people can do more and can help us convert that analogue to digital process, is the route to be able to do that.”

Both of the new series’ of printheads are compatible with UV inks, whose use is growing in industrial printing, as well as water-based and solvent inks.