Konica Minolta KM512i MAB-C Printhead

The KM512i MAB-C is an industrial inkjet printhead made by Konica Minolta themselves (genuine OEM). It uses shear-mode piezo on-demand technology to fire the ink. It’s part of the KM512i family, and this particular one is the water-based (aqueous) version. It’s made in Japan, handles grayscale printing, and is widely used in wide-format and industrial printers.

Where it fits in the series

The KM512 series uses a shared-wall structure with shear-mode piezo drive, which keeps power use low and lets the nozzles sit close together. The series comes in three types, based on drop size:

• L type — 42 pl (big drops)
• M type — 14 pl (medium drops, does grayscale)
• S type — 4 pl (small drops, does grayscale)

The KM512i MAB-C is the M-type, water-based version, so it can do 4-level grayscale for smoother color transitions.

What the name means

• KM512i — the “i” generation of the 512-nozzle head
• MA — M-type drop size (medium, around 14 pl)
• B — dual-row / binary-compatible build
• C — the suffix for this specific model, the water-based one

Size

• 71.8 mm tall × 40 mm wide (20 mm if you don’t count the “wings”) × 67 mm long
• Prints about 36 mm wide in a single pass
• Has a “wing” design that makes it easy to line up and tile multiple heads together for fast, full-width single-pass printing

Printers that use it

• Allwin C8-512i / C4-512i (3.2m, 8-head / 4-head models)
• MeiTu MT-KN3208CI / MT-KN3204CI (8-head / 4-head)
• ORIC ORCK32-512I (3.2m, 4/8-head)