It has been a busy two years for Epson America. In late 2022, Epson opened its new headquarters in Los Alamitos, California, complete with a showroom encompassing its full portfolio of digital printing products. That portfolio has grown over the past two years, as Epson returned to the first drupa in eight years, as well as PRINTING United 2024.

During a recent tour at Epson’s new headquarters, Epson America, Inc. CEO Keith Kratzberg talked about the past, present and future of Epson.

“Sixty years ago, The Seiko Group introduced the Crystal Chronometer QC-951, its tabletop quartz clock, and also won the contract for a printing timer to print out the times at the Olympics in 1964,” Kratzberg said. “Epson commercialized that printer, the EP-101, in 1968.”

Kratzberg noted that the EP-101, a dot matrix printer, was the world’s first electronic printer. It would be a success, and in 1975, the company changed its name to Epson, or son of EP-101. Today, printing is the key part of its business.

Meanwhile, Suwa Seikosha Co., Ltd.’s, Epson’s magnet business, was working on complementary metal-oxide semiconductor (CMOS) integrated circuits. The company would be merged into Epson in 1985, forming Seiko Epson Corporation.

Semiconductors would also prove crucial for the printing business, as they form the backbone of the printheads. In 2013, Epson launched its line of PrecisionCore® printheads, a key differentiator for its printing ecosystem. “Our PrecisionCore printheads are in almost all of our printers,” Kratzberg observed. “They are compatible with an incredible variety of inks.”

Before diving into wide-format printing, one of Epson’s key products over the last decade, for the home and office segment, has been the cartridge-free EcoTank.®  The printer is a turnkey solution. Although the hardware is more expensive, all EcoTank printers come with bottles of ink in the box, and each bottle is expected to print thousands of pages.

It is a simple system to use, with each ink bottle being poured into its own reservoir, and is the opposite of the typical printer model of an inexpensive printer with expensive small cartridges of ink. Customers pay up front for both the hardware and ink, so users do not need to worry about running out of ink, and those that replace their ink bottles can save up to 90 percent with replacement ink bottles vs. ink cartridges.

“The printing sector is overwhelmingly the biggest part of our business,” added Kratzberg. “Home printers are our biggest business. We manufacture 15 million home printers every year, and our PrecisionCore printheads keep costs down. Our EcoTank printer has been very successful; our market position has come up around the world. Most home printers are laser printers and use heat to fuse the plastic particles on paper. Epson’s inks don’t need to be heated.”

As for the new headquarters, Andreas Goehring, director, Professional Imaging, Epson America, Inc., noted that the new facility is modeled after more modern and contemporary buildings.

“We were able to add our showroom here in this building,” Goehring said. “There is great collaboration and feel and anyone who comes here gets to see all our products. There’s a whole set of products that are coming to market now that are represented in this space.”

“The new building is excellent, offering great spaces for teamwork and collaboration,” added Reed Hecht, group product manager, Professional Imaging, Epson America, Inc. “Everybody is very happy to be here under one roof.”

New Wide-Format Products Reach the Market

Epson is in a wide range of digital printing sectors, including wide-format, UV flatbed, dye-sublimation, direct-to-garment, direct-to-film, direct-to-object, fine art, technical and architectural printing and much more.

One of the new products brought to the 2024 PRINTING United show was the SureColor® F9570H 64-inch dye-sublimation printer. Among its features are the user-replaceable 2.6″ PrecisionCore Micro TFP printhead and expanded 6-color UltraChrome® DS ink set, with multiple ink configurations including Light Cyan and Light Magenta, Fluorescent Pink and Fluorescent Yellow, or Orange and Violet.

“Dye-sublimation is being used for a wide range of products, including mugs, socks, blankets, and more, and goes from desktop to production level,” said Tim Check, senior product manager, Professional Imaging, Epson America, Inc. “Dye-sublimation also works very well on sports apparel and leggings.”

Marc Aguilera product manager, Professional Imaging, Epson America, Inc., discussed the SureColor P-Series, which is designed for high-end photographs and fine art.

“The new SureColor P20570 has an extraordinary wide color gamut with excellent performance,” said Aguilera. “This printer leverages a 12-channel PrecisionCore Micro TFP printhead coupled with the pigment-based UltraChrome 12 ink set, with Orange, Green and Violet ink, therefore and every color has its own channel.”

Lily Hunter, product manager, Professional Imaging, Epson America, Inc., showed the new SureColor F1070 desktop direct-to-garment (DTG) and direct-to-film (DTFilm) printer, an entry-level hybrid printer with a highly competitive price. It uses UltraChrome DG2 ink with CMYK+Wh.

“The SureColor F1070 makes direct-to-garment printing easier at a much better price point,” Hunter noted. “To complete the product line, the SureColor F2270 is our workhorse, and the SureColor F3070 is our largest version.”

“Screenprinters like these new direct-to-film printers as the machines are becoming faster,” Goehring added. “This is high-end technology. We have a machine for everyone, from a small desktop to an industrial business.”

Another new addition at PRINTING United was the SureColor S9170, a 64-inch solvent printer. The SureColor S9170 features UltraChrome GS3 ink, with an 11-color ink set, including Red, Orange and an all-new Green. This allows the printer to offer an outstanding color gamut; the inks come in either 800mL or 1,500mL cardboard packaging.

“The Epson SureColor S-Series printers have built a reputation based on their exceptional color gamut,” said Matt McCausland, group product manager, Industrial Printing, Epson America, Inc. “With the introduction of the SureColor S9170, we’ve combined this extreme color gamut with the latest imaging technology in a new modern, sleek form factor to redefine expectations in signage printing.”

“With the SureColor S9170, we are hitting more than 99% of the Pantone library by adding Green ink, which adds hundreds of thousands of colors,” added David Lopez, product manager, Professional Imaging, Epson America, Inc.

Lopez also discussed the new SureColor V1070 direct-to-object printer, Epson’s first UV flatbed desktop printer, at a price of $8,495. It has a 6-color UltraChrome UV ink set, including White, Gloss or Matte Varnish ink.

“The reaction at PRINTING United has been great,” Lopez said. “We will be sold out of the new SureColor V1070 before the end of the show. It was definitely well received; customers are doing the research on desktop direct-to-object printers and they are surprised that our price point is so much lower that our competitors. In addition, the SureColor V1070 have the capability to add varnish, which is an added effect.”

Hecht noted that PRINTING United is one of the largest shows for Epson.

“We debuted some of our latest innovations at drupa. Now we were able to show those for the first time in the US, at PRINTING United, as well as a few other new introductions,” said Hecht. “We love PRINTING United.”

At PRINTING United 2024, Epson is also showcasing the technology debut of its roll-to-roll 35-inch direct-to-film printer, which has yet to be named. Hecht pointed out that DTFilm printing is changing weekly, and Epson has been working on perfecting this project while also providing other press manufacturers with its printheads.

“We want to make sure our products are stable, work repeatably and are reliable,” said Hecht. “We don’t do hacks or partial jobs. The only way we recommend our products is if it works.”

Hecht also noted that Epson’s expertise in ink gives it an advantage over its competitors. UltraChrome has been Epson’s brand name for 24 years; the R&D is done in Japan, with factories worldwide to manufacture its inks.

“There is no other manufacturer who has the breadth of ink technology that we have,” said Hecht. “We have a stable of inks; we sell millions of liters of ink per year.”

“Our printheads and inks are uniquely matched; we design our inks so they won’t clog our printhead. We can print through our printheads every kind of ink technology,” Hecht added.

Ultimately, Kratzberg said that Epson’s goal is to benefit society with its simple yet efficient products.

“We want to enrich society through our compact, efficient and precise technology,” Kratzberg added. “There’s a lot more emphasis on sustainability, and we have had a strong emphasis on the environment.”