Tonejet is a drop-on-demand inkjet printing technology that enables the direct digital deposition of printing ink onto substrates. The Tonejet digital printing

Digital printing

Digital printing refers to methods of printing from a digital based image directly to a variety of media. It usually refers to professional printing where small run jobs from desktop publishing and other digital sources are printed using large format and/or high volume laser or inkjet printers...

 process is targeted at commercial and industrial applications.

The Tonejet inkjet technology was first disclosed in Patent Cooperation Treaty

Patent Cooperation Treaty

The Patent Cooperation Treaty is an international patent law treaty, concluded in 1970. It provides a unified procedure for filing patent applications to protect inventions in each of its contracting states...

 publication WO 93/11866 dated June 24, 1993, with the inventor named as Luis Lima-Marques, and assigned to Research Laboratories of Australia Pty. Ltd., in Adelaide

Adelaide

Adelaide is the capital city of South Australia and the fifth-largest city in Australia. Adelaide has an estimated population of more than 1.2 million...

, Australia. A number of patents relating to the Tonejet technology, including United States Patent 6,260,954, have been granted. Research Laboratories of Australia formed a partnership with The Technology Partnership plc, a technology and product development company from the UK, to add hardware development expertise. Tonejet now has its headquarters in Cambridge, UK.http://www.blackstoneresearch.com/0807.PDF

Tonejet Process

The Tonejet process is an electrostatic drop-on-demand deposition technology that enables high-quality images to be printed onto virtually any type of absorbing or non-absorbing substrate at high speed. The Tonejet process consists of electrostatic concentration and ejection of particles from a fluid. The Tonejet print head enables an electric field

Electric field

In physics, an electric field surrounds electrically charged particles and time-varying magnetic fields. The electric field depicts the force exerted on other electrically charged objects by the electrically charged particle the field is surrounding...

 to be applied to the ink

Ink

Ink is a liquid or paste that contains pigments and/or dyes and is used to color a surface to produce an image, text, or design. Ink is used for drawing and/or writing with a pen, brush, or quill...

. The Tonejet ink

Ink

Ink is a liquid or paste that contains pigments and/or dyes and is used to color a surface to produce an image, text, or design. Ink is used for drawing and/or writing with a pen, brush, or quill...

 is a key part of the ejection process. The ink

Ink

Ink is a liquid or paste that contains pigments and/or dyes and is used to color a surface to produce an image, text, or design. Ink is used for drawing and/or writing with a pen, brush, or quill...

 consists of electrically charged, conventional printing

Printing

Printing is a process for reproducing text and image, typically with ink on paper using a printing press. It is often carried out as a large-scale industrial process, and is an essential part of publishing and transaction printing....

 ink

Ink

Ink is a liquid or paste that contains pigments and/or dyes and is used to color a surface to produce an image, text, or design. Ink is used for drawing and/or writing with a pen, brush, or quill...

 pigments, in a non-conductive liquid. In the Tonejet printhead, an electric force is applied directly to the charged ink particles. The longer the electric pulse is applied, the more ink

Ink

Ink is a liquid or paste that contains pigments and/or dyes and is used to color a surface to produce an image, text, or design. Ink is used for drawing and/or writing with a pen, brush, or quill...

 is ejected. The Tonejet ejection process concentrates the ink

Ink

Ink is a liquid or paste that contains pigments and/or dyes and is used to color a surface to produce an image, text, or design. Ink is used for drawing and/or writing with a pen, brush, or quill...

 prior to ejecting the droplets onto the substrate, with continuous greyscale control. The Tonejet printhead is a three dimensional structure consisting of side walls, flow channels and ejectors. An ink meniscus is formed between the side walls and the ejector. The Tonejet printhead is therefore a simple, nozzleless, open structure. http://www.tonejet.com/docs/091105_IMI_talk_gcfn_for_procs.pdf

Commercial Products

In late 2007, Tonejet announced that it had produced the world’s widest integral printhead for use in an industrial printer. The 172mm wide printhead would enable the vast majority of food and drink packaging to be printed in a single pass, thereby bringing substantial logistics and cost savings to the packaging industry.
http://www.printweek.com/news/765324/Tonejet-project-develops-worlds-widest-integral-printhead

In 2008, Ball Packaging Europe announced that in cooperation with Tonejet, they would supply individually designed beverage can

Beverage can

A beverage can is a tin can designed to hold a specific portion of a beverage. Beverage cans are made of tin-plated steel or aluminium.- History :...

s using the Tonejet process with photo quality, 600 dpi resolution.
http://www.ball-europe.com/382_1639_ENG_PHP.html?parentid=671

In June 2010, Air Berlin

Air Berlin

Air Berlin PLC & Co. Luftverkehrs KG is Germany's second largest airline, after Lufthansa, and Europe's sixth largest airline in terms of passengers....

 launched its own line of beverage can

Beverage can

A beverage can is a tin can designed to hold a specific portion of a beverage. Beverage cans are made of tin-plated steel or aluminium.- History :...

s after becoming the first customer for Ball Packaging Europe's technology co-operation with Tonejet.http://www.packagingnews.co.uk/channel/equipment/news/1008372