On January 27th Fuji Xerox announced a newly developed adhesive toner for use with their family of printers and MFPs. This news comes shortly after the announcement that the company’s longstanding business relationship with Xerox would be ending, and during a time when Fuji Xerox seeks to differentiate itself from this partnership and Xerox’s own product lineup.
The toner itself uses an emulsion aggregation (EA) manufacturing method – a technology initially patented by Xerox in the 1990s. Unlike traditional toner, which is made by pulverizing raw material into a fine powder, EA toners are chemically manufactured, and the toner particles are developed from a solution of resin, pigment, and wax. Compared to conventional toner particles, which vary in size and have a rough surface, EA toner particles are round and uniform. The predictability of EA toner leads to a number of benefits, including sharper image quality, increased reliability, and faster warm-up times. Currently, EA toners are offered with a number of Xerox digital presses, including the Iridesse, Versant 180, and Nuvera 200.
Conventional Toner vs. EA Toner
Source: Fuji Xerox
Fuji Xerox’s new toner takes advantage of this technology in a new way – introducing an industry-first adhesive function. The toner is transparent, colorless and can be used at the same time as conventional toner. The glue-like effect is activated by applying pressure to the printed areas, and adjusting the adhesive strength is done by modifying the amount of toner, printing area, and/or pressure sealer conditions. Fuji Xerox expects this technology to be useful for a number of applications, and to provide an alternative to in-line stapler functions. In theory, products like booklets, small manuals, coloring books, multi part documents, self-sealing mailers, and crimped postcards could all take advantage of this new toner, eliminating any additional gluing, stapling, or binding steps, though we are still waiting to see this technology in action
Fuji Xerox Adhesive Toner Process
Source: Fuji Xerox
Odds are this will not be the last innovation from Fuji Xerox, who will soon be known as Fujifilm Business Innovation Corp. according to their recent name change announcement, and we are interested to see what other technologies they introduce as they differentiate themselves in the digital printing space.
