Inkjet origins

• 1600 Gilben - electrostatically deformed droplets
• 1867 Lord Kelvin - ionized ink jet
• 1878 Lord Rayleigh - ink sprayer
• 1952 Elmquist/Hanzel - Rayleigh breakup ink jet
• 1960’s Sweet at SRI - continuous ink jet (CIJ)
• 1965 Casio Typuter - electrostatic ink jet (ESIJ)
• 1960’s Sweet at SRI - continuous ink jet (CIJ)
• 1978 Siemens & Silonics - piezoelectric ink jet (PIJ)
• 1980 Canon & HP- thermal ink jet (TU)

A shon list oflandmark products included :
• 1965 Casio Typuter- first key-to-print (teletype)
• 1976 IBM 6640 - first Continuous InkJet word processing printer
• 1978 Siemens & Silonics - first PIJ dot matrix printers
• 1984 HP Thinkjet - first Thermal Ink Jet replaceable cartridge printer (Wire matrix printer replacement for PC output ; 12 nozzles, 96 dpi, 150 cps ; Replaoeable canridge with some reliability concerns)
• 1985 HP Paintjet - first TIJ full color printer
• Late 1980’s Tektronix & Spectra - hot melt ink PU
• 1990 HP Deskjet Series - low cost 300 dpi TU
• 1993 Epson MJ500 - first low cost Piezoelectric Ink Jet print

Source : The Revolutionary Evolution of lnk Jet a lecture by Ross Mills from Vexjet during IMI InkJet Printing 2016 Conference.