The ceramic industry has entered an era of ink-jet printing technology around the world. Howev-er, in China, the largest ceramic producer, the inkjet printing technology is still remaining at the toddle stage, where the market of inkjet products is to be developed. It is expected that the application of inkjet printing technology will be de-veloping rapidly in China, and there are great potentials in market. Obviously, the devel-opment of China's inkjet tech-nology will promote tremen-dous changes in ceramic in-dustry around the world.

　　Several years ago, inkjet ceramic products had been leading products in Italy, Spain and so on, followed Nabel and Cimic in East China and ce-ramic enterprises in Foshan were following as well in order to obtain the market “Cake”. In early 2010, Gold Medal Ce-ramics promoted Avatar 3D inkjet ceramic products, which was considered that Foshan ceramic manufacturers began to march into the field of inkjet ceramics. Afterwards, New-pearl and Kito from Foshan promoted inkjet ceramic prod-ucts. Up to 2011, many ceramic enterprises have purchased inkjet printing equipment; even some small enterprises as well for the production of ceramic chips and rustic tiles. China’s ceramics have stepped into an "Inkjet Era", and the ceramic inkjet will bring significant in-fluence to the whole value chain including design, process and application.

　　However, before the inkjet ceramic products become leading in market, many diffi-culties have to be overcome such as higher price, limited technology and marketing. At present, the printheads of the inkjet printing machine used in China are mainly imported from countries America, Britain and Japan. Also, the inkjet ink is not quite stable at home, and most of ink has to be imported in or-der to meet the needs of the mess production. Together with the fact that leading ce-ramic enterprises are not low-ing down their prices, the inkjet ceramic products are still ori-ented as high-end products with relatively high prices. Therefore, the market share of the inkjet ceramic products is quite limited. They do not be-long to the mainstream in the market.

　　For Chinese enterprises, the independent production of inkjet equipment is also a top priority for the development of the ink-jet technology, which is a key factor influencing the costs and sales of products. With the technical progress and development, the prices of inkjet equipment will surely reach a reasonable point. Be-fore some inkjet printing e-quipment providers enter ce-ramic industry, they have had strong scientific research strength and rich print practices in other fields. At present, some enterprises including Hope, Teckwin, King Tau, Flora, Meijia and New King Time have made great progress in the re-search and development of ce-ramic inkjet printing equipment. In addition, their inkjet printing equipment has begun to be sold at home and abroad, which are leading China’s inkjet printing technology to the international stage.

　　The sales of Chinese inkjet printing equipment pro-ducers are increasing, and the market shares of inkjet printing products are increasing as well. It is reported by Shanghai Teckwin Marketing Center that the production and sales of color inkjet printing machines researched and developed in-dependently by the company have good situation. Currently, more that 20 sets of equipment have been sold to Sanfi, Mona Lisa, New Zhongyuan, Cham-pion, Tianxin, Overland and Dongpeng, all of which are leading ceramic producers at home. Chen Jun, sales man-ager of Flora introduced that the sales of Flora inkjet printing equipment were increasing rapidly, and it has established cooperation with ceramic providers in Shandong, Hunan, Guangxi and so on. Inkjet ce-ramic tiles make household adornment more characteristic; particularly, they satisfy the young for the pursuit of stylish consumption demand. Inkjet microcrystal tiles of MATI, the inkjet wood texture tiles of Kito and Cantop make all surprising: the inkjet technology of ce-ramic can embody the perfect individual value for apprecia-tion. The inkjet products of the enterprises keep being well sold in market this year. In ad-dition, they are extremely pop-ular among young consumers.

　　On January 11, NAS-DAQ-listed digital inkjet enter-prise EFI announced that it had acquired privately-held Cre-taprint S.L. based in Castellón, Spain. One the one hand, EFI will use its extensive knowl-edge of inkjet technology to enhance Cretaprint's software control, color management and more. On the other hand, EFI will share Cretaprint's 1,700-plus global customer net-work. At the same time, an in-creasing number of Chinese machinery manufacturers are actively preparing the entry into ceramic inkjet printing field. Companies like Brovo Ad-vanced Materials and Dow-stone are quickening their steps to improve the quality and pro-duction capability. In the year 2012, the ceramic inkjet printing market in China will have better development, with further im-provement in product design, accessories, market channel developing and marketing strategies. Meanwhile, the manufacturers of ceramic inkjet printing machinery and ink will lower the prices while they are developing more new products.

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　　世界陶瓷已经进入喷墨打印技术时代，作为世界陶瓷生产大国，中国的喷墨打印技术还处在蹒跚学步阶段，喷墨产品市场有待开拓。业内共识，中国的陶瓷喷墨打印技术应用将进入快速发展期，市场推广潜力无限，显然，推动中国喷墨技术发展将会引起世界陶瓷发生风云变化。

　　几年前，陶瓷喷墨产品已经成为意大利、西班牙等陶瓷强国的主流产品。紧跟其后，华东地区的诺贝尔、斯米克等陶瓷企业推出喷墨陶瓷产品，佛山陶企也纷纷跟进，抢食“蛋糕”。2010初，金牌亚洲陶瓷公司推出金牌阿凡达3D陶瓷喷墨产品，这被认为是佛山陶瓷企业开始进军喷墨陶瓷领域。随后新明珠、金意陶等佛山陶瓷企业也发布陶瓷喷墨技术产品。到2011年，为数不少的陶瓷企业已经购买了喷墨打印设备，甚至一些小企业也购买了喷墨打印设备，用于瓷片和仿古砖等产品的生产。中国陶瓷已经步入“喷墨时代”，陶瓷喷墨对瓷砖的设计、生产、应用等整个价值链都将带来重大影响。

　　不过，喷墨陶瓷产品要想成为市场主流，仍需面临价格偏高、技术受限、市场推广等问题。据了解，目前国内的喷墨打印核心技术主要还是依赖进口，国内的喷墨墨水不够稳定，喷头主要依赖美国、日本等国家，这些技术问题导致喷墨打印的成本居高不下。据悉，使用喷墨打印的产品，平均每平方米成本会比丝网或者辊筒印刷贵10多元人民币。因此，数码陶瓷喷墨设备比传统的陶瓷印刷设备成本要贵，并且目前尚未大批量生产，仅定位为高端产品，所以价格也相对偏高。价格偏高市场难以开拓正是喷墨陶瓷产品要普及所面临的问题，如果价格不降下来，喷墨砖很难成为市场主流，毕竟高端的产品在整个市场有限。

　　对中国而言，喷墨设备国产化也是喷墨技术发展的重中之重，它是直接影响产品的成本和销量的重要因素。随着技术的进步和整个行业的发展，喷墨设备价格肯定会达到一个合理的空间。据了解，部分喷墨打印设备生产企业在进入陶瓷行业之前，已经在其他喷墨打印领域具备雄厚的科研力量及丰富的打印实践。目前国内有泰威、彩神、美嘉、精陶、新景泰等企业在喷墨打印设备研发方面取得优异成果，并在国内外销售喷墨打印设备，引领中国喷墨打印技术走向国际舞台。

　　国内喷墨打印设备生产企业的销售不断增加，喷墨产品市场销售快速增长。记者从上海泰威营销中心获悉，该公司自主研发生产的彩色喷墨印花机产销形势大好，目前已销往国内陶企蒙娜丽莎、东鹏、冠军、天欣、欧文莱、新中源等已达20多台。彩神销售总监陈军告诉记者，彩神喷墨打印设备销售保持快速增长，和山东、湖南、江西、广西等地区的陶瓷企业建立合作。喷墨瓷砖让家居装饰更具个性，满足年轻人追求个性消费需求。玛缇陶瓷的喷墨微晶石，金意陶、康拓的喷墨木纹砖让人惊叹瓷砖喷墨技术能如此完美地表达出个性化的欣赏价值。这些企业的喷墨产品在今年市场的销售一直保持火热，并且受到年轻消费者的青睐。综上所述，目前的喷墨市场还处于快速发展阶段，各方面如产品设计、产品配套、市场渠道开发以及配套的营销手段等有待改进和完善。