FUNCTIONAL PRINTING · ENERGY DEVICES
Inkjet in Solar Cell and Battery Manufacturing: Ricoh’s Perovskite Move
A printhead can place an image on paper. With a different ink and process, it can also place the material that collects light, transports charge or separates battery electrodes. The commercial question is whether that precision produces a reliable device at an acceptable cost.
Ricoh has announced a route toward production
On 27 October 2026, Ricoh announced plans to establish manufacturing capabilities for inkjet-printed perovskite solar cells at Ricoh Industry’s Tohoku Site in Shibata, Miyagi Prefecture, Japan. The project was selected for Japan’s GX Supply Chain Development Support Program. Ricoh targets mass-production start by 2030 and annual capacity of several hundred megawatts, with later gigawatt-scale expansion in view. These are announced targets, rather than evidence that the proposed capacity is already operating. [1]
The deployment work extends beyond printing. A consortium announced in September 2025 assigns production technology to Ricoh, construction and installation development to Daiwa House, and electrical-system integration to NTT Anode Energy. Rooftops and walls with limited load-bearing capacity are intended applications. A printable film must still become an installable, durable power-generating system. [2]
Two different energy devices: a photovoltaic solar cell converts light into electricity; a rechargeable battery stores and releases energy through electrochemical reactions. The shared manufacturing tool is controlled liquid deposition. The materials, interfaces and qualification tests differ.
In a solar cell, the printed pattern has an electrical job
Ricoh describes depositing electron-transport, perovskite, hole-transport and counter-electrode layers onto a transparent electrode. Its proposed approach pattern-prints the functional layers, aiming to remove laser-removal and vacuum-deposition steps from that manufacturing route. Continuous roll transport and digital patterning are central to its productivity and custom-size ambitions. This describes Ricoh’s specific process, rather than every perovskite module architecture. [3]
| Layer | Purpose | Manufacturing question |
|---|---|---|
| Charge-transport layers | Move the appropriate charge carriers toward the contacts. | Can a thin, continuous layer be formed without damaging the layer below? |
| Perovskite absorber | Absorb light and generate charge carriers. | Does drying produce the required crystal structure and film coverage? |
| Counter electrode | Collect charge and connect the cell electrically. | Are contact resistance and patterned boundaries controlled? |
A liquid dot is only the beginning of a film. Adjacent drops have to merge without leaving gaps, while solvent removal and crystallisation determine the absorber’s final structure. A 2024 inkjet study by Satale and colleagues linked solvent engineering to film morphology and device performance. Its reported champion cell efficiency was about 17.5%, while a 12.3 cm² module reached about 11.4%. Those are separate laboratory results at different scales, illustrating why a cell-efficiency number should not be presented as a factory’s module performance. [4]
The potential advantage is selective placement: material can be deposited where an electrical pattern needs it, with design changes made digitally. The cost benefit must be assessed after drying, inspection, rejected area and module finishing are included.
Rechargeable batteries offer a different set of printing opportunities
Ricoh also describes battery-material inks and printing systems for electrode materials, ceramic functional layers, separators and solid electrolytes. Its technical page identifies low-viscosity ink development and printhead parallelisation as part of the approach. These capabilities concern particular battery layers and processes; they do not establish that a complete battery factory can simply be replaced by a printer. [5]
The historical distinction matters. Ricoh’s February 2021 announcement described a prototype inkjet system intended for mass-production processes and plans for customer sampling and prototyping. That announcement is evidence of a development programme, not a reported commercial production volume. [6]
Published experiments show both the promise and the constraints. Kolb and colleagues examined aqueous graphite anode dispersions using drop monitoring and rheological measurements. A formulation containing 2 mass% graphite produced stable drops in their apparatus. The result is a formulation-and-equipment-specific demonstration, not a universal solids-content limit for battery inkjet. It also shows why a low-shear viscosity value alone cannot describe non-Newtonian electrode dispersions. [7]
Assa and colleagues reported a layer-by-layer lithium-ion cell containing printed cathode, separator and anode components in 2025. Their drop-on-demand equipment used a dispensing valve with different orifice sizes for the electrode and separator inks. It is a useful printed-stack demonstration, but its operating window should not be transferred to a conventional multi-nozzle, picolitre inkjet head. The cell also required drying, electrolyte and coin-cell assembly. [8]
The practical opportunity is therefore broader than printing an entire cell: selected coatings, patterned interfaces and small or custom-shaped devices may justify digital deposition even where the main electrode remains conventionally coated.
A well-formed drop can still make a poor battery
Gu and colleagues’ 2015 work on aqueous inkjet-printed lithium iron phosphate cathodes is a useful warning. The printed layers appeared uniform, yet reactions associated with the alkaline ink and aluminium collector were linked to interfacial impurities and poor electrochemical behaviour. A CNT-paper collector performed better in that study. The relevant lesson is compatibility between ink, substrate and device chemistry, rather than appearance alone. [9]
For a development programme, the following questions connect the liquid to its eventual function:
- What is actually in the ink? A perovskite precursor solution, a ceramic dispersion and a graphite suspension require different stability controls. Colour-pigment specifications are not interchangeable with electronic-material specifications.
- Does the ink remain jettable over time? Check settling, agglomeration, evaporation at the nozzle, restart and recirculation under the selected head’s operating conditions.
- What remains after drying? Binders, dispersants and other non-volatile components become part of the film. Their influence on conductivity, adhesion and interfaces must be measured.
- Does the next layer disturb the previous one? Solvent attack, incomplete drying and intermixing can defeat an otherwise accurate pattern.
- Does the device pass its own tests? Photovoltaic efficiency and durability, or battery capacity, impedance and cycling, provide evidence that a printed layer is doing its intended job.
These are process-development questions, not a universal recipe. For background on comparable measurements, see our guide to viscosity, conductivity, pH and surface tension. In functional inks, even the meaning of conductivity must be specified: ionic conduction in a wet liquid is different from electronic conduction in a dried electrode.
At production scale, accepted output matters more than print speed
Thin, patterned layers are attractive targets for selective deposition. Thick, high-loading battery electrodes present a tougher productivity calculation: a dilute ink may require repeated passes and more solvent removal. Raising the solids content can reduce that burden, but only if the material still passes through the chosen deposition system and forms a useful electrode. Kolb’s study makes that formulation constraint explicit. [7]
A sensible commercial comparison asks for accepted functional area per hour, material consumed per accepted device and cost after drying and quality losses. It also includes nozzle maintenance, changeovers, coating uniformity and downstream assembly. The same comparison should be made against the actual alternative—such as slot-die coating or a hybrid line—not against an idealised laboratory process.
Selective deposition may reduce material losses and some patterning steps. A net environmental benefit still depends on solvents, drying energy, yield, lifetime and end-of-life treatment. “Printed” alone does not establish that a device is greener.
AIC’s technical perspective: this field rewards expertise in surface chemistry, dispersion control and repeatable liquid processing. AIC’s commercial platform is self-dispersed water-based inkjet pigment colorants. Energy-device inks require their own materials, purity standards and device qualification. The transferable lesson is to develop the liquid and the manufacturing process together.
Related reading: Can self-dispersing CNTs support higher solids or better battery stability?
References and research scope
Sources checked on 28 October 2026. Company plans are identified as plans; laboratory results retain their experimental scope. This is an independent technical perspective, with no implied affiliation between AIC and the organisations cited.
- Ricoh: Manufacturing capabilities for inkjet-printed perovskite solar cells, 27 October 2026.
- Ricoh, Daiwa House and NTT Anode Energy: NEDO Green Innovation Fund consortium, 10 September 2025.
- Ricoh: Inkjet-Printed Perovskite Solar Cells, technical overview.
- Satale et al.: Ink engineering using 1,3-dimethyl-2-imidazolidinone solvent for efficient inkjet-printed triple-cationic perovskite solar cells, Chemical Engineering Journal, 493, 152541 (2024).
- Ricoh: Digital Manufacturing of Lithium-Ion Battery Utilizing Inkjet Technology, technical overview.
- Ricoh: Lithium-ion secondary cell manufacturing technology at BATTERY JAPAN, 24 February 2021.
- Kolb et al.: A priori evaluation of the printability of water-based anode dispersions in inkjet printing, Production Engineering, 18, 61–74 (2024); published online in 2023.
- Assa et al.: 3D printing of multi-layered Li-ion batteries by inkjet drop-on-demand method, Journal of Solid State Electrochemistry (2025).
- Gu et al.: Fabrication of rechargeable lithium ion batteries using water-based inkjet printed cathodes, Journal of Manufacturing Processes, 20, 198–205 (2015).