Ricoh Printhead Description — Printhead Basics (Part 8) ARTJET 2026

1. Before Epson Heads Were Sold Officially

1_1. Types of Chinese Printer Manufacturers

• Chinese printer manufacturers can broadly be divided into two types.
• Companies that develop their own electronic boards and software while manufacturing printers
• Companies that purchase boards and software from third parties and use them to manufacture printers
• Even manufacturers that develop their own boards and software cannot develop new versions for every new head release, so they sometimes purchase boards and software as well.
• As of 2019, the two most prominent board and software specialists in China were BYHX and Royal.
• BYHX had around 200 employees and was the largest board and software supplier in China.
• Royal was similarly a board and software supplier, with around 80 staff.
• Beyond these two, several other companies also supply boards and software.
• During visits to BYHX and Royal in October 2019, representatives told us: “Konica heads used to dominate, but Ricoh heads have been holding strong in the mid-to-low price segment.”

1_2. Ricoh Heads

• The key advantage of Ricoh heads is that multiple colors can be loaded into a single head, making it possible to achieve good print quality without complex mechanical alignment.
• Because two or even four colors can be loaded into one head, printers can be built at lower cost.
• However, the total nozzle jetting span is not particularly long, meaning Ricoh-based printers are slower than those using Konica heads.

1_3. Konica Heads

• Konica heads accept only one color per head, meaning good print quality cannot be achieved without precise mechanical alignment.
• Because each head carries only one color, the high-cost heads must be multiplied per color channel — making Konica-based printers inherently more expensive.
• However, the longer nozzle span makes Konica-based printers faster than Ricoh-based ones.
• Around 2019, Ricoh heads became the standard choice for mid-to-low-priced printers — particularly compact UV printers — due to their lower overall build cost.

2. After Epson Heads Began Selling Officially

2_1. Before Chinese Compact UV Printer Models Stabilized

• Compact UV printers were supplied exclusively by Japanese manufacturers — Mimaki, Roland, and Mutoh.
• Despite being compact machines, most used expensive industrial print heads, which kept equipment prices high.
• Sales were primarily concentrated in the US and Europe; in Asia, only large companies used Japanese products.

2_2. Before Chinese Compact UV Printers Stabilized

• Starting in 2015, Chinese manufacturers began pulling Epson heads from standard desktop office printers to build low-cost compact UV printers.
• But the early days were not smooth.
• These printers were made by small-scale operators rather than established manufacturers, so both the machines and the heads — sourced from consumer office printers — were unstable.
• Ink formulated specifically for Epson heads was also not widely available, leading to frequent ink-related problems.

2_3. As Chinese Compact UV Printers Stabilized

• By 2017, domestic Chinese sales of compact UV printers had exceeded 4,000 units.
• The small-scale operators had grown into proper manufacturers capable of producing stable machines.
• Seeing the rising sales volume, large UV printer manufacturers also began taking an interest in compact UV printer development.
• With 4,000 units sold, ink manufacturers began developing inks specifically formulated for Epson heads — and ink quality stabilized as well.
• The turning point came when Epson China officially agreed to supply Epson heads directly to Chinese printer manufacturers, which stabilized the head supply itself.
• Today, the trend is: Ricoh heads for speed-priority machines, Epson heads for machines where a slightly lower price point matters more than speed.

This article focuses on Ricoh heads — the choice for speed-priority machines.

1. Key Characteristics by Model

• Gen3 has 192 nozzles; Gen4 has 384 — essentially two Gen3 heads combined. They look similar and differ mainly in nozzle count.
• Starting with Gen5, the print span extends to 54.1 mm — significantly longer than Gen3 and Gen4’s 32.4 mm — with a total of 320 × 4ch = 1,280 nozzles.

1_2. There are many variants, but grasping the key characteristics below makes Ricoh heads much easier to understand.

• Gen4: 7pl, 384 nozzles. Not widely used today.
• Gen5: 7pl, 1,280 nozzles. Speed varies depending on how many channels are dedicated to each color, but running all 1,280 nozzles on a single color makes it 2–3× faster than Gen4.
• Gen5s: 2.5pl, 1,280 nozzles. Dramatically better print quality than earlier heads thanks to the smaller drop volume.
• Gen6: 5pl. Ricoh’s documentation notes double the lifespan when used with water-based ink — suggesting it was designed with aqueous ink as the primary target.

1_3. Other Heads

• TH5241: 3pl, 27.1 mm nozzle span, supports up to 4 colors. Known as the Gen5i and Xaar1201, this was one of the most widely used heads in UV printers over the past several years.
• GH2220: 3–5pl, designed for water-based and solvent inks. UV ink is not listed in the spec sheet, but Korean manufacturer Apache has used it in compact UV printers.
• MH5421: A recirculating head designed exclusively for high-end single-pass machines.
• Note: the term “Gen” does not appear on Ricoh’s official website. The photo below shows the official Ricoh printhead model names.

• 

2. Ricoh Print Head Spec Summary

• The table below focuses on heads used in large-format inkjet equipment. GH2220 and TH5241 (Gen5i), which are primarily used in compact UV printers, are not included — please verify those separately.
• For detailed information on the Gen5i (TH5241, Xaar1201) — the most widely used head in UV printers — refer to the link below.
• Why You Need to Understand Print Head Spec Values

•