Madison, WI-based Parts Now has become the initial distributor and reseller for Memjet-powered C6010 color printers in North America. Parts Now will also provide dedicated technical support, technical dealer training, warranty desk and administrative dealer support for Memjet-powered printers.

In an interview with PrintWeek Memjet VP of brand and communications Jeff Bean said the C6010 is being made by an unnamed Asian manufacturer.

"What we will be doing in that space is working with Parts Now to offer small to medium size businesses a new value proposition," he explained. "Right now so many of these businesses are stuck in monochrome—they don’t want to print color because the cost of color laser is so high. This gives these businesses the ability to print color all the time if they want."

In recent years, Parts Now has been expanding its product and service portfolios and said in a release it can offer everything a print and imaging reseller requires to run and support their program.

"The Memjet-powered C6010 is a fast and affordable color option for any MPS dealer" added Ryan Humphrey, director of MPS at Parts Now. "The Memjet-powered C6010 offers a new, cost-effective alternative to A4 color printing, making color further accessible for a customer and profitable for a reseller."

In addition to selling the Memjet-powered C6010, Parts Now will also offer Memjet consumable ink tanks, printheads, parts and refilled ink tanks and "fill your own" ink systems.

Bean also told PrintWeek there could be additional MPS partners going forward, adding, "I’ve already gotten calls from people in the channel that have contacted me following our announcement asking how they could get involved. So we feel there’s a pent up demand for this technology in the office space."

Off course Memjet also continues to look for opportunities with commercial printing press manufacturers and Bean suggested additional OEM partners could be announced in the coming months.

Echoing comments made previously by Memjet executives, Bean said the company is already focused on extending the life of its waterfall printheads, which feature more than 70,000 nozzles, each 1/10th the diameter of a human hair, that can fire more than 700m drops of ink on a page in a second.

"The R&D team in Australia is working on second generation printheads, he said, suggesting they could be ready by year end. "The third generation is beyond this year and will use mechanical heads. We’re also working on pigmented ink for use in the printheads as well."

Memjet last year announced OEM agreements with a range of manufacturers, including Delphax, Canon/Océ and Fuji Xerox and Bean said he expects some of those manufacturers to bring presses to market sometime this year.

First on the block could very well be Fuji Xerox Asia Pacific, which several weeks ago announced a new wide format inkjet printer the DocuWide C842. Though the press release announcing the new press did not mention Memjet by name, the feature set, which includes output speeds of 152.4mm per second in a 42-inch wide format, suggests Memjet printheads are being used.