In the digital printing world, there is a longstanding debate between the use of inkjet and toner. The facts are that each technology has its advantages, and R&D is constantly coming up with improvements.
 
On the toner side, one major step was the introduction of Emulsion Aggregate, or EA, toner, and the growth in the EA toner market has been sizable. InfoTrends estimates that production digital color toner-based pages will grow at a 6.2% CAGR between 2013 and 2018, totaling 295 billion pages globally by 2018.
 
This presents a sizeable opportunity for Xerox, the major player on the toner side. To meet the market’s needs, Xerox completed a nearly $35 million expansion project at its manufacturing facility in Webster, NY. Overall, the company has invested $120 million in the five-story facility, which has more than 29 miles of pipe and 100 stainless steel tanks.
 
The company reports that it added approximately $26 million in EA toner manufacturing equipment to the new facility, increasing production capacity of EA toners by 40%. The plant size has increased from plant size from 100,000 square feet to 155,000 square feet.
 
“From the first xerographic image over 75 years ago, Xerox has been reengineering the way people work, and this toner plant represents the state-of-the-art in printing personalized documents at massive scale,” said Sean Collins, corporate public relations for Xerox.
 
“Consistent with our tradition, the additional manufacturing capability enables us to reengineer the manufacturing process to improve efficiency, enabling Xerox to remain competitive in the years ahead,” Collins added.
 
Xerox’s history dates back more than 75 years ago, when xerography was invented by Chester Carlson. Joseph Wilson, then president of Haloid Photographic Company, saw opportunities with the new technology and set out to develop it. By 1959, the Xerox 914 plain paper photocopier was launched, and in 1961, the company’s name was officially changed to Xerox. Development of toner technology would follow more than 40 years ago.
 
“While Xerox has produced toner for over 40 years, we have been in the midst of major toner manufacturing technology transition for the last 15 years, since 2000, when we introduced our first toner made by the EA process,” said Collins.
 
Developed by Xerox and protected by more than 300 patents, EA toner produces sharper images using less toner per page. Since EA toner was first introduced, Xerox and Fuji Xerox have designed more than 50 office and production printing products that use EA toner.
 
Unlike traditional toner, which is created by physically grinding composite polymeric materials to micron-sized particles, Collins noted that EA toner is chemically grown enabling the size, shape and structure of the particles to be precisely controlled. This leads to improved print quality, less toner usage, less toner waste and less energy required for manufacturing and for printing. As a result, interest in EA toner has grown.
 
“EA volumes have been growing steadily since the plant was opened in 2007,” Collins said. “This is due to the transition of pages from dry processed toner to EA toner. We are constantly working to push the limits of the equipment to maximize our capacity, but demand for this type of toner is extremely strong, so we have also needed to invest in additional capacity.”
 
Collins said that Xerox’s decision to expand its Webster, NY facilities was a natural result of the company’s experience in the area.
 
“As a global manufacturer of toner, Xerox could have potentially built this plant almost anywhere in the world,” said Collins. “However combining it with the existing infrastructure in Webster, NY, the people expertise we have available and state and local government incentives made Webster the most effective choice.”