An interview with Frazer Chesterman of the InPrint team:
IMI Europe are running the Inkjet Engineering and Inkjet Development Conference in Lausanne later this month and we caught up with their Managing Director, Dr Tim Phillips to find out more about this year’s event:
Tim – What is the idea behind the focus on ‘Engineering’ and ‘Ink Development’ for this event and how is it different from other IMI events?
‘This event is specifically aimed at inkjet developers and technologists and will hopefully give them the tools and information to help them do their job more effectively. We planned the event both to deliver valuable educational & technical content and crucially give the opportunity for the attendees to develop long lasting relationships that form the basis of collaboration in the development of technology in our industry. We believe this is essential in the successful development of inkjet into true industrial applications. It is very satisfying to see these collaborations forming at our events.’
Why do you think collaboration is so important in the development of Inkjet for Industrial applications?
‘There are clearly some key challenges for the successful development and deployment of inkjet into industrial applications. We believe it is important to develop technology jointly, in partnership between system vendors, ink manufacturers, component suppliers and materials suppliers. The system and/or the ink should not be developed in isolation.
We have thought long and hard about the way to structure the event. What we came up with is a paired set of conferences based on Engineering (system development and components) and Ink Development (materials, technology, equipment and techniques). If an attendee is only interested in one side of the equation they can visit the relevant conference, or if they want to learn about both sides they can come to both. Both events have a variety of technical content focused around certain key themes, which are intended to give an update on the technology and help with some of the challenges that the industry faces at the moment. The themes for the Engineering Conference are:
- Introduction to the challenges of single pass integration
- Modelling and theory
- Key system components
- New technologies
For the Ink Development event the themes are:
- Materials and ink case studies in decorative applications
- Functional materials and applications
- Ink characterisation tools and techniques
- Ink formulation and manufacturing tools and techniques
- Modelling and theory'
What do you see as the current challenges?
‘We see three key challenges facing the industry at present as:
1. That the development of system technology does not always work in ‘tandem’ with the development of the inks. Hopefully, the contacts and introductions that people make at our event will go some way towards forging early partnerships and progressing technology development more rapidly and efficiently.
2. The single pass challenge – problems with cost and reliability of integrating high speed single pass inkjet into long run industrial production lines.
3. With particular reference to packaging and food contact – developing a technology that is compatible with food standard expected by the industry.’
Looking at the event programmes you have some excellent speakers presenting on theory, ideas and innovation, as well as application and technology-based sessions. What are the particular highlights for you of this year’s event?
‘We had excellent feedback from our first technical Ink Development Conference event last year in Lausanne, with attendees enjoying the mix of technical talks from industry and academia.This year we are adding the Engineering Conference, continuing our mission to enable collaboration and learning within the inkjet industry.
Let me share some of the many highlights with you:
Engineering Conference
Nick Campbell of Inca will be talking about the challenges of single pass inkjet integration. Nick is an excellent speaker with a refreshingly honest view about the problems that face development engineers and project managers working on complex integration topics. The talk promises to be thought-provoking and potentially controversial!
Looking at a new topic, Elsa Callini of Ebeam Technologies will be talking about electron beam curing. This has the potential to allow very high speed curing of inks for packaging and other applications without the need for potentially harmful and expensive photo initiators in the ink.
Ink Development Conference
Cinzia Casiraghi, University of Manchester, is part of the Nobel Prize winning group looking at graphene and its derivatives. Cinzia will be presenting some very exciting work looking at creating electronic devices from 2D crystals using inkjet printing. There is more very interesting work on functional printing being presented by Promethean Particles, University of Sheffield, Technische Universität Chemnitz and Adphos.
Another very interesting theme is in decorative printing - mainly focussing on textiles and décor, with talks from Mexar, Tiger Coatings, Amor Industrial Inks, Setas Kimya and University of Leeds.
There is also a great section on characterisation and processing of inks, with talks from ImageXpert, Ricoh, Malvern Instruments, University of Leeds, X-Rite, Netzsch, Fullbrook Systems and many more.
Finally, Cristina Rodriguez-Rivero from the Inkjet Research Centre, University of Cambridge has a very interesting talk on aerodynamic effects on drops in flight, which proved a fascinating topic at our recent Inkjet Winter Workshop.’
Full details about the events are as follows, and you can find out more at IMI Europe’s website, www.imieurope.com.
IMI Europe Inkjet Engineering Conference
Components and techniques for digital printing system development and production
14 March, 2017
Aquatis Hotel, Lausanne, Switzerland
The new one-day event comprises ten technical presentations by invited experts from industry and academia, aimed at inkjet system developers and integrators. The topics range from practical overviews of the challenges of inkjet integration to theoretical modelling of printhead behaviour and inkjet processes, as well as overviews of key inkjet system components and introductions to new technology. The presenters are from Ebeam Technologies, Edale, Exergen, Global Graphics Software, Global Inkjet Systems, Inca Digital Printers, Meteor Inkjet, Pall Filters, Reden and University of Twente.
IMI Europe Inkjet Ink Development Conference
Materials, equipment and techniques for digital printing ink development and manufacturing
15-16 March, 2017
Aquatis Hotel, Lausanne, Switzerland
Building on last year’s successful new technical event, the IMI Europe Inkjet Ink Development Conference returns with a fully curated programme of twenty high quality invited talks from industry and academia designed for inkjet ink development chemists. Topics include a focus on inks for decorative and functional applications, as well as raw materials, analytical equipment and techniques. Presenting companies and institutions include Alchemie Technology, Amazon Filters, Armor Industrial Inks, Fulbrook Systems, ImageXpert, Malvern Instruments, Mexar, Netzsch, Promethean Particles, Ricoh Europe, Setas Kimya, Technische Universität Chemnitz, Tiger Coatings, University of Cambridge, University of Leeds, University of Manchester Graphene Centre, University of Sheffield and X-Rite.