Ricoh’s Gen6 head takes everything that made Gen5 the industrial standard and sharpens it: 5 picoliter droplets 50 kHz greyscale firing, and more than double the aqueous service life in RobotJet’s single pass platform.
The RICOH GEN6 configuration is what happens when the industry’s toughest print head family gets a precision upgrade. Launched by Ricoh as the higher spec successor to the legendary Gen5, the Gen6 (MH5320/MH5340 series) shrinks the minimum droplet from 7 to 5 picoliters, raises greyscale firing frequency to 50 kHz, and decisively for packaging producers more than doubles service life on water-based inks compared to its aqueous predecessor.
Translation for your production floor: finer print quality, roughly half the printing time at equal resolution versus the previous generation, and one head family that runs UV, solvent, and water based ink digital printer. It's the configuration we recommend when a factory wants Ricoh durability without compromising on modern detail and speed.
5-picoliter droplets end graininess. Gen5’s 7 pl minimum was excellent; Gen6’s 5 pl is visibly finer. Smooth skin tones, delicate gradients, and small text print without the grain that betrays industrial output Ricoh specifically engineered improved jetting accuracy so quality holds at speed.
50 kHz greyscale = production speed. Firing frequency is the heartbeat of single pass printing: more drops per second means more material per minute. At 50 kHz greyscale versus 20 kHz on the previous generation the Gen6 delivers roughly twice the throughput at the same resolution. Jobs that took an hour now take about thirty minutes.
Double the aqueous life. Ricoh more than doubled water-based ink service life versus the prior MH5421/5441 aqueous heads. For paper packaging producers this rewrites head economics: the famous Ricoh steel longevity, now genuinely available for water-based production.
Separable head and cable. Gen5’s integrated cable meant replacing everything together; Gen6’s independent structure lets the cable and head be serviced separately lower maintenance cost, faster swaps, simpler machine builds.
One head family, three ink chemistries. UV, solvent, and aqueous compatibility in the same platform reduces spare-part inventory and keeps your options open as your product mix evolves.
In UV configuration: plastic packaging and containers, acrylic, glass, coated cartons, metal, wood, promotional products, and industrial marking with white ink and varnish support via the integrated heater, and 5 pl detail that makes UV decoration look like litho.
In water-based configuration: the full paper packaging range corrugated boxes, pizza boxes, kraft bags, cartons, cups, and tissue where the doubled aqueous life brings industrial-grade head longevity to food-safe, eco-friendly printing.
Either way, the same platform economics apply: no plates, no setup fees, file-driven design changes in seconds.
High-throughput packaging converters who need Gen5-class uptime but at modern line speeds the 50 kHz frequency directly raises meters-per-minute. Quality-critical UV decoration where 5 pl droplets deliver premium results on demanding brand work. Mixed-chemistry operations running both paper packaging and non-absorbent products, standardizing on one head family. Factories upgrading from older Ricoh-based machines who want familiar reliability with a generational leap in output.
The GEN6 ships integrated into the same production architecture that carries all our industrial configurations: vacuum-suction material transport, real time deviation correction, automatic height adjustment, negative-pressure ink supply with white ink circulation, LED curing tuned to ink and speed, and steel gantry framing that holds micron-level head alignment for years.
Our own control boards and RIP software RobotJet’s in-house foundation since 2015 drive the head’s greyscale modes, channel mapping, and ICC color pipeline. All features unlocked, zero license fees, lifetime updates.
Choose the RICOH GEN6 if you want the best overall balance in the industrial lineup Ricoh durability, 5 pl detail, 50 kHz speed, and multi-chemistry flexibility.
Choose the [RICOH GEN5] if your priority is the longest-proven track record at a lower configuration cost, and 7 pl quality serves your applications fine.
Choose the [EPSON I3200U] if maximum gradient finesse on UV decoration is the single deciding factor.
Choose the [EPSON I3200A] or [WF-C20590] if your work is purely water-based paper packaging at premium quality or wider coverage respectively.
The honest answer usually reveals itself on paper send your artwork and materials, and we’ll print comparative samples across configurations.
Every GEN6 machine follows the RobotJet standard: your artwork printed on your materials before you commit live video acceptance testing of your machine before shipment, itemized FOB pricing with no hidden costs, and free lifetime technical support from the engineers who built it. With machines in over 120 countries and core equipment past 10,000 days of stable field operation, we back the newest head generation with the same proven process and demonstrate it live at exhibitions listed in our exhibition gallery.
What is the RICOH GEN6 printer used for? It’s a next-generation industrial digital printer available in UV and water-based configurations printing packaging, products, and industrial materials with 5-picoliter detail at up to 50 kHz production speed, on a stainless-steel head platform with more than double the aqueous service life of the previous generation.
What’s the real difference between Gen6 and Gen5? Three upgrades: droplet size (5 pl vs 7 pl minimum finer detail), greyscale frequency (50 kHz vs 20 kHz roughly half the print time at equal dpi), and a separable head/cable design that cuts maintenance cost. Gen5 remains an excellent lower-cost workhorse; Gen6 is the performance choice.
Does it really run water-based ink well? Yes that’s one of Gen6’s headline improvements. Ricoh more than doubled aqueous service life versus the preceding water-based heads, bringing steel-head durability to paper packaging production.
Is 600 dpi native resolution enough? Combined with 5 pl greyscale droplets, the perceived quality rivals higher-dpi binary systems greyscale renders tones with variable drop sizes rather than dot density alone. Judge it the reliable way: we’ll send printed samples of your own artwork.
Can it print white ink? Yes the integrated heater jets high-viscosity white reliably, with continuous circulation, enabling opaque underbase on dark and transparent substrates in UV configuration.
What’s included with the machine? Automatic feeding, RobotJet RIP with all features, remote installation, operator training, 2-year warranty, stocked spares, and lifetime technical support plus samples and live video testing before you pay the balance.
Send us the job your current machine struggles with the fine detail the speed target, the tricky substrate. We’ll print it on the GEN6 and ship you the evidence, with an itemized quote within 24 hours.
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