And yet, if April’s InPrint exhibition was anything to go by, the area of industrial print is becoming more, not less, specialised and distinct from the world of graphic arts printing. With confusion still abounding about what exactly ‘industrial print’ actually is, printers need to be wary about being misled.

This confusion is understandable to some extent, given that the applications for inkjet technology have up until now been almost exclusively print-related. As the most visible focus for the world of digital print, inkjet has become an accepted process from the cut-sheet market right the way through to wide-format applications up to 5m wide, with impressive quality and speed developments now making inkjet relevant to the majority of print requirements today. And the graphic arts arena has represented the most obvious platform for inkjet over the past two decades.

More than graphics

But since the earliest iterations of print-heads, logic has always decreed that developments would extend well beyond print. Now, true functional applications have diversified into their own independently defined sector. Which means that the temptation on the manufacturers’ parts to set their machines apart form their ever-more productive competitors by adding the moniker ‘industrial’, has led to this term becoming an increasingly misleading descriptor.

Probably the easiest differentiator between graphic arts and industrial print is that the latter is an element or process that is added to a product during the manufacturing cycle. This type of application can be purely functional or decorative. Flooring and ceramics are obvious examples, along with the marking of mobile phones and tablets, white and brown goods, dials and speedometers, and identification labelling. 

Xennia marketing manager, Tim Phillips, says: “Industrial print is a process that takes place as part of the manufacture of a product on a production line. So industrial print is a means to an end, rather than the end itself. This can include decorative print, coating and material deposition.”

Digital print technology is gaining more and more traction throughout the industrial sector because of its ever-improving cost-effectiveness and because of its versatility, aided by steady improvements in the technology over the past decade. More durable inks and fluids can now be jetted successfully, complemented by compact curing units, such as those that use LEDs, for example. 

As manufacturing has moved towards an on-demand model, in which stock levels are kept to a minimum, so inkjet technology has dovetailed neatly into production processes that offer mass customisation as well as more flexible run lengths, removal of manual intervention and faster turnaround times.

Not that all industrial print is going inkjet. Interestingly, there’s been a significant resurgence in screen processes to work alongside. But deposition of fluids and their jetting is a key benefit of non-contact application. So the physical attributes of inkjet technology lend themselves nicely to applications on fragile and sensitive materials. 

“The fact that digital technology can deposit ink or material by jetting, and not by transfer, will certainly open new markets for industrial printers where the contact between the printed object and printing system is a problem,” states Frederic Blancher, group sales director at ink supplier Encres Dubuit.

“As opposed to conventional technologies, inkjet can produce short-run prints in a cost-effective way. What’s more, the reduced time to market allowed by inkjet equipment is a plus for a competitive and on-demand driven industry,” explains Jon Harper Smith, marketing manager for industrial at Fujifilm Speciality Ink Systems. 

“Not only can a more customised and flexible production process be pursued with the adoption of inkjet, but a capacity boost can also be achieved by spreading the workload across digital and traditional print equipment. These features turn into significant advantages for a demanding and highly productive environment, such as the industrial and functional market.” 

“Inkjet is just one of the technologies that can be used for industrial print. It is, however, seen as the preferred and fastest growing of the technologies to add print in a manufacturing process,” adds Tom Cloots, marketing manager for industrial inkjet at Agfa Graphics. “The concept of ‘printing’ with inkjet heads and specific ink formulations on flat and curved substrates is now being adapted by system integrators for implementation in production lines.”

“The great benefit of digital is in the flexibility it can add to a previously fixed production process,” adds Xennia’s Phillips. “This is very similar to the typical ‘short-run’ argument for graphics. But, in product manufacture, this can enable a complete revolution in the economics and logistics of a business, which can transform sales, by enabling new products to be introduced more rapidly and to have a wide product range; reduce costs, by removing tooling and inventory storage expenses; and free up cash.”

Specialist requirements

The key to industrial print lies in the ink or fluid. Ricoh Europe’s business development manager for industrial print, Graham Kennedy, outlines the case: “Unlike traditional printing processes, where one formulation fits all, inkjet chemistries are tailored to the specific needs of an application, whether it’s greater resistance, durability, temperature tolerance or function.”

Of the types of applications inkjet technology is being used for in the industrial sphere, David Chapman, who has responsibility at Xaar for developing the company’s advanced manufacturing business, says: “We address several sectors within the broad scope of industrial printing, in particular the decoration of ceramic tiles and decorative laminates.”

He adds: “And there is the application of inkjet to deposit functional fluids as an advanced/additive manufacturing process in areas such as display, printed circuit boards, semiconductors, solar and glass. So, in addition to decoration, we maintain a strong focus on the broader application of functional fluids of which, for example, conductive fluids as used in printed electronics, are just a part – and still a relatively small part – in terms of inkjet.”

Typically, today, the companies and development teams involved in the industrial inkjet segment are those whose specialist areas span a variety of uses of their technology. 

But Xennia’s Phillips feels that those involved in the graphics segment are seeing industrial as the ‘next big thing’ and are trying to jump on the bandwagon. “We think the industrial ‘market’ – if such a thing exists – is very different to graphics; simply rebranding your existing wide-format printers is not the answer. We will see how this evolves over the next few years.”

In agreement, Xaar’s Chapman is emphatic on whether users of existing inkjet technology can produce functional applications. “This is not a realistic step for companies,” he says. “Specialist systems using specialist processes and fluids are required for production-level functional print applications. It requires specific production technology and processes.”

So while it may interest printers to learn of inkjet-related developments in the world of mass manufacture, the diverging paths of industrial and graphic arts inkjet suggest this is not a field you can just jump into. ‘Industrial’ might be a word cropping up with increased frequency in relation to their shiny new inkjet machines. But printers need to realise that while inkjet is making exciting short-run, personalisation and non-contact printing inroads into many areas of manufacture, the same can’t necessarily be said for ‘industrial’ into print. 

REPORT FROM INPRINT

Confirmation that the shift towards industrial print has consolidated into an industry segment that requires its own space came in Hannover and the inaugural InPrint exhibition. No one knew at the outset how this event would pan out in terms of relevant visitors but, ultimately, there was a clear consensus after its three-day duration that this show had attracted the right audience.

With industrial print’s definition becoming a fuzzy area, particularly within the graphic arts arena, the clarification that InPrint provided was that digital technology needs its own space for developers, systems’ integrators and manufacturers. 

The crossover from the mainstream print sector was demonstrated by printhead manufacturers, ink specialists, component suppliers, curing and drying specialists, software developers and others, with evidence that these companies have been growing their offerings to accommodate more specialist markets and production processes for some time.

So InPrint wasn’t an exhibition where visitors might expect to see lots of ready-made machines. Although there were complete lines on show developed to aid manufacturing processes, it was the element of integration that shone through, with the exhibition providing a good opportunity for those involved in both new and existing technologies to converge.

Perhaps surprisingly, InPrint also provided an excellent platform for analogue processes, and demonstrated how these can be used in conjunction with their digital counterparts within the industrial sector. InPrint confirmed that there’s no reason screen printing and pad printing can’t sit tidily next to inkjet.

Though the key to this event was moving digital print onto its own podium for industrial applications, it also provided a golden opportunity for participants and visitors to determine where inkjet sits in the manufacturing cycle across all types of environment. The show also represented the opportunity to see the challenges faced by development teams and suppliers in digital circles, and to witness how applications are focused on functionality rather than purely decorative criteria.

Overall, there’s little doubt that this is a segment destined to continue on a growth trajectory for some years. Fears this event might have been a one-off were swiftly dispelled with the announcement of the next show in November 2015 in Messe Munich, Germany.