Toray Co Ltd, known as a top manufacturer of synthetic fibres, particularly carbon fibre, is diversifying into laser printer manufacture with the help of Itochu trading company subsidiary Itochu Electronics, according to the Nikkei Industrial Daily. Toray will develop and manufacture the laser printers, which Itochu will sell both in Japan and abroad under their own brandname. The printer, to be known as the PS-600JII, will support Level II PostScript, 35 English fonts and 5 Japanese fonts, and output A3 pages, and will be priced initially at around $9,000. Toray is building on its expertise in printing fabric, and has developed the printer controller, while the print engine will be procured OEM from Toshiba Corp. Various manufacturers have begun to see the laser printer market as more attractive, and Nissei Sangyo Co, Canon Inc and Ricoh Co Ltd have recently released new laser printers onto the market, which is estimated to support the sale of a total of 30,000printers of all sizes in the current year.
