Inkjet Ink Manufacturing

Manufacturing Inks For Performance & Reliability

Thursday 6 - Friday 7 July, 2023

The Møller Institute, Cambridge, UK

COURSE FOCUS

This course is designed for those wishing to develop and manufacture inkjet inks, or interested in commissioning their development and manufacture. It introduces the issues of ink design and formulation for manufacture, materials specifications, testing and reliability, scale-up for manufacture and productisation. We then discuss the manufacturing processes themselves, the equipment required, ink plant design and quality control. Lastly, we cover the potential business models for an ink formulation or manufacturing company. As well as being of interest to inkjet technologists, managers will benefit from an understanding of the inkjet ink manufacturing process to set realistic project and revenue plans and decide whether to develop and manufacture in-house or source externally.

The course is led by Dr Chris Nicholas, Founder & Director, Smart Chemistry, and Dr Tim Phillips, Catenary Solutions/IMI Europe.


COURSE OUTLINE

thursday 6 July 2023

12:30 - 13:30 Registration

13:30 Course begins

Critical aspects of inkjet systems design

  • Printheads

  • Ink

  • Ink systems

  • Motion control

Ink formulation considerations for manufacturing

  • Inkjet ink ingredients

  • Inkjet ink design & requirements

Creating robust material specifications

  • Dyes

  • Pigments

  • Polymers

  • UV cure materials

  • Functional materials

  • Solvents

  • Additives

17:00 Session ends

17:00 - 18:00 Reception

Join us for beers, wines and good company!

friday 7 July 2023

09:00 Session begins

Testing protocols & validation for manufacturing

  • Optimisation & testing

  • Test schedules

  • Protocols

  • Testing for reliability & robustness

  • Relationship with printer

    • Printhead

    • Colour tables

    • Ink management system

Ink manufacturing

  • Quality control processes

    • QC laboratory infrastructure

    • QC laboratory equipment

  • Scale up for manufacture

    • Lab processes

    • Pilot plant trials

    • SPC parameters

Inkjet ink requirements

  • Jet break-up

  • Nozzle plate inspection

  • Drop velocity & volume

  • De-cap & latency

  • Expanding printing & lifetime

  • Image quality analysis

Manufacturing & ink plant requirements

  • Layout

  • Equipment selection

  • Manufacturing practices

  • Quality standards

12:30 - 13:30 Lunch

13:30 Session begins

Manufacturing processes

  • Mixing regimes

    • Water based inks

    • Solvent based inks

    • UV-cure inks

  • Milling processes

  • Filtration systems

  • Degassing

  • Purification

  • Bottling

  • Packaging

Commercial considerations

  • Markets

  • Strategies

  • Costs

  • Positioning

  • Value chain

17:00 Course ends


COURSE LEADERS

Dr Chris Nicholas, Founder & Director
Smart Chemistry, UK

Chris worked in the R&D labs at Kodak, before joining Xennia Technology as EU Program Manager.  He then worked at Tonejet Ltd as Lab Manager where he set up an Ink R&D Lab and Dispersion Manufacturing Facility.

Chris founded Smart Chemistry Ltd in 2018 as a Chemical Technology Consultancy, offering advice & services to help companies with all aspects of Industrial Inkjet Technologies, from Materials deposition, Contract R&D to Scale up and Manufacturing.  Chris has worked on a wide range of inkjet applications, including Textiles, Packaging, Smart Technologies and Security printing.

Chris graduated from the University of Manchester with a BSc (Hons) degree in Chemistry, a MSc in Polymer Chemistry from the University of Lancaster and then returned to Manchester to complete his PhD in Solid State Polymer Electrolytes. 

Dr Tim Phillips, Founder & Director
Catenary Solutions, UK

Tim Phillips has extensive experience in challenging inkjet integration projects, spending eight years working at Xennia Technology Ltd, the leading inkjet solutions company that was acquired by Sensient in 2015. This involved working with a wide range of companies developing technology for new applications including textiles, ceramics, packaging, décor and functional material deposition for printed electronics and biomedical uses. Tim founded Catenary Solutions in 2015 to bring this knowledge of digital solution development and marketing to a wider audience, working with numerous companies in the inkjet industry since then. Tim is an experienced presenter of IMI Europe courses including the Inkjet Academy, Inkjet Ink Manufacturing & Digital Textile Printing courses.

Tim graduated from the University of Cambridge with an MA Honours degree in Natural Sciences, and completed his PhD in liquid crystal physics and chemistry at the University of Bristol. He has also qualified as an Executive MBA with the University of Warwick.