LumeBar, LumeJet's technology for high-speed, industrial applications of inkless, photonic printing, has been awarded ￡250,000 in funding through the Technology Strategy Board's Smart programme. The award is also a demonstration of the current interest in photonics, identified as one of the Key Enabling Technologies critical to business-led innovation by the European Commission's 2020 New Horizon Programme.

Instead of a moving print-head traversing the media, 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. Individual LumeBars are custom-built, tailored for wavelength and spot size, and specifically designed for fast throughput and higher output capability.

LumeBar is a new application for LumeJet's patented photonic print-head technology being developed for high-speed, industrial printing applications. These include high-quality documents such as photobooks, inline labelling and packaging and plastic electronics.

Photonic digital printing is fast, clean, micron accurate and can be applied to solid objects and flexible media, according to LumeJet. It exceeds the capabilities of conventional ink- or toner-based print methods and, with further development, is expected to facilitate many emerging technologies, such as OLED, OLAE (organic and large area electronics) and plastic logic.