Ceramic nozzle is a kind of high-tech product. Due to the high requirements of manufacturing technology, only a few countries can produce it, and China is still blank. China's inkjet printer manufacturing industry must import a large number of nozzles from foreign factories every year to meet production requirements. It is preliminarily estimated that in 2014-2015, the domestic ceramic tile sprinkler market alone will reach a market share of 4-5 billion yuan. In this issue, on the one hand, we let the industry understand the main performance of different types of nozzles by comparing different brands of ceramic nozzles. On the other hand, we point out that the current market prospect of ceramic nozzles is broad, and advocate the rapid development of China's ceramic nozzle manufacturing industry, and realize the localization of ceramic nozzles as soon as possible.

Development of nozzles: At present , there are about 20 manufacturers of ceramic nozzles　　for inkjet printing in the world , and there are many varieties for industrial applications, such as XAAR, SEIKO, DIMATIX, KONICA MINOLTA, EPSON, TOSHIBA, etc. But China has not produced ceramic nozzles so far. The ceramic nozzle is the core of the inkjet printer, which belongs to the high-precision product of the micro-motor. At present, there are four main manufacturers of nozzles that can be used for inkjet printing in the ceramic nozzle industry: Seiko of Japan, Searle of the United Kingdom, Polaris of the United States, and Konica of Japan. The first three are currently the three mainstream nozzle manufacturers. Throughout the past five years, the technological progress of the nozzle is mainly the continuous improvement of printing speed and precision.

　　Ink circulation method for ceramic nozzles: There are two ink circulation methods for nozzles, one is the internal circulation technology represented by Searle, and the other is the external circulation technology represented by Seiko . Through years of production practice, it has been shown that these two ink circulation methods have their own advantages and disadvantages.

　　The ceramic nozzles of various manufacturers have their own advantages and disadvantages. A brief analysis is as follows:

　　XAAR1001 nozzle: XAAR1001 has a large number of nozzles, up to 1000, and the nozzle precision can reach 360dpi. In fact, the nozzles are arranged in two rows with 500 holes in each row. The ink drop size is between 6-6-42pl, and the gray scale can be controlled at 8 levels. The nozzle's two ink inlets are available for internal circulation. Its disadvantages are: low ignition frequency, slow ink dot speed, no wear resistance of ceramic nozzles, nano particles used in ceramic inks, long printing time, nozzles will deform and become larger, resulting in reduced printing accuracy.

SPT510 and SPT508GS nozzles: The main difference between SPT510 and SPT508GS nozzles is gray scale: SPT510 has no gray scale; SPT508GS has 3 gray scales. It is basically the same in appearance and shape, with a similar number of orifices. The ignition frequency of the Seiko nozzle is not very high. The advantage is that it is made of stainless steel, which is wear-resistant and not easy to wear. But there is only one ink inlet for the two nozzles, which can only be used for external circulation. Since the ceramic ink is easy to precipitate, when the ink reaches the ink bag of the nozzle, it may cause precipitation and affect the pattern effect.

SPECTRA GALAXY NOZZLES: SPECTRA GALAXY nozzles have a small number of nozzles, only 100 holes, but are widely used in the ceramic industry. Structurally, the ceramic nozzle has two ink inlets, so it can circulate itself. In terms of other performances, this nozzle has a high ignition frequency, which can reach 20,000 times per second; the inkjet speed is fast, up to 8m/s; the material is made of stainless steel, wear-resistant, and has a long service life. SPECTRA GALAXY nozzles are compatible with many kinds of inks, including water-based, oil-based, solvent-based, silver conductive ink, silicon ink, CIGS ink, biological cell ink and so on.