Global Inkjet Systems (GIS) has announced a new Head Interface Board (HIB) for the Ricoh Gen 4 printhead family.  The new HIB supports both the standard Gen 4 printhead and the Gen 4L - and can drive up to four printheads from a single board, reducing system complexity and cost.  The HIB-RH-384 provides access to all standard Gen 4/L printhead settings and requires a single 24V power supply to support the full operating voltage range of the printhead. 

Ricoh printheads are well established in wide format graphics, proofing, 3D printing and the Gen 4 printhead is of particular interest for textile applications, because of its aqueous ink capability and robust characteristics.   The standard Gen 4 has a native resolution of 300dpi with greyscale (7pl, 14pl and 21pl drop sizes) and the Gen 4L offers 150dpi with larger drop sizes (up to 54pl).

“Ricoh was missing from our portfolio and so we are pleased that we can now support the Gen 4 printhead” said Nick Geddes, chief executive officer of GIS. “The Gen 4 is becomingly increasingly popular – particularly in high growth textile applications – so we have responded to market trends and the needs of our customers.”

The GIS HIB-RH-384 will ship in volume within two months; GIS is now also developing electronics to support the new Ricoh Gen 5 printhead.