INKJET PENETRATES INDUSTRIAL

APPLICATIONS & MARKETS

Dr Alan Hudd
Xennia Technology Ltd
Presented at the 20th Annual Ink Jet Printing Conference
Las Vegas, USA, Feb 2011

Inkjet penetrates industrial

applications and markets
The changing industrial landscape
Ceramics inkjet has become the dominant technology

Functional digital textiles self cleaning fabrics become a reality

Solar energy coatings inkjet could be game changing for new applications

Xennia helps customers lower

operating costs, increase productivity
and simplify mass customised production
by revolutionising manufacturing processes

from inkjet ideas to production reality

Xennia develops & supplies digital solutions based on

inkjet modules, systems and inks for industrial
applications

Technology push to market pull

The changing landscape

Price competition
Existing arena

New arena

Non-price competition

Traditional
customers

Inkjet proposition

Courtesy Mr Loek de Vries, Chairman and President, Royal TenCate

Product decoration
Huge demand for digital decoration of parts on production lines
Key drivers are:

Reduced costs
Print on demand means no need for large inventories

Increased productivity
Printing system spends the whole time printing

Faster response to customer demands

New designs can be introduced rapidly
Products can be personalised/customised on the fly

Key industrial applications I

Textiles

Digital decoration of textiles:

Garment personalisation
Reel-to-reel textile production

Flags, banners, awnings

Soft furnishings

Ceramic tiles & tableware

Digital decoration of:

Ceramic wall/floor tiles
Ceramic tableware
Promotional items

Key industrial applications II

Architectural
glass

Digital glass printing applications:

Direct print during manufacture
Print polymer laminate
Direct print after manufacture

Flooring & furniture

laminates

Digital decoration of:

Wood-effect flooring
(Direct printing and laminates)
Furnishings

Key industrial applications III

Product
decoration

Wall coverings

Digital decoration of:

Consumer wallpaper
Commercial wallpaper
Commercial vinyl coverings

Digital decoration of:

Automotive glass/headlamps/fairings/parts
Safety/automotive helmets
Security wristbands/identity cards
Optical fibres, wires and connectors
Consumer appliances/products
etc.

Examples of some key markets

Application

Market Size

Market Requirement

Opportunity

Textiles
(Direct to garment DTG)
(Reel to reel RTR)

Printed textiles $165Bn

DTG printing with rapid

turnaround
Cost effective RTR printing

Fast XY inkjet with UV inks

High productivity RTR with
aqueous dye inks

Ceramics
(Tiles)
(Tableware)

>9500 M m2 tiles
printed annually
Yearly equipment sales
>$800m

Wall/floor tile printing with

digital capability
Digital ceramic decal
printing

High throughput fixed array

inkjet + ceramic inks
XY inkjet + ceramic inks
(sampling)
Fast XY + decal ink (decals)

Glass
(Architectural)
(Automotive)
(Appliance)

Printed glass $1.3Bn

High productivity
production printing
Fast turnaround batch
printing
Ability to print non-flat

High throughput fixed array

inkjet + high temp inks
XY inkjet + PVB inks/UV inks

Wall/floor/furniture
coverings

Wall/floor covering
printing $1.6Bn globally

Fast high quality digital wall

covering printing
High productivity digital
laminate/decor printing
Rigid furnishings

High throughput fixed array

inkjet + solvent/aqueous inks
XY inkjet + UV inks

Technology pre-qualifiers
Industrial inkjet solutions must have the following:
User friendly and powerful software

Excellent image quality

Good durability of the printed image

Inkjet printing software

Image processing
Geometrical transforms
RIP

Colour management
Printhead-specific data

System integration
Managing system components
Receiving external commands

Variable data printing

Generating each image

Tracking and verification

Image quality
Goal is:
To create images with best possible look
To deposit materials with minimum error

The quality circle relates:

Customer perception (image quality)

e.g. sharpness, colourfulness, contrast

Physical image parameters (print quality)

e.g. optical density, line acuity, dot placement

Technology (ink, printheads, printer, etc)

Image durability
Durability of the printed image is vital
Durability must be sufficient for the application

Effects on durability from

Substrate (material, surface properties, dirt etc)

Ink (binders/monomers/oligomers)
Process (pre/post-treatment)

Adhesion of ink to required substrate

Cross-hatch tape/Scratch/Scuff/abrasion resistance

Film hardness
Solvent/water/specific chemical resistance

Fastness
Water/wash/humidity, Rub/crock, Light/UV, Dark/ozone

Major application drivers

Drivers
Ink chemistry
Reliability
Productivity/Speed

Key developments
UV/pigment inks
Greyscale printheads

Recirculating ink technology

Inkjet modules
Fixed array systems
Diagonal printing systems

Solution design requirements

Reliability
Ink/printhead/nozzle
Printhead assembly/wires/electronics
Ink system/pipework

Maintenance station
Print verification station

Software
Motion system

UV, motion system etc

Cost
Build Cost Vs Redundancy of design for reliability
Running cost Vs Productivity

Ceramic inkjet printer tile industry

Earliest inkjet developments started in approx 2002 (Kerajet and Xennia)
2008 a few manufacturers with digital systems operating
2010 more than 10 digital manufacturers
Proliferation based on success
Digital equipment sales now exceed traditional analogue saleson an annual basis
Repeat sales and adoption of inkjet worldwide

Inkjet technology is transforming the ceramic tile industry

Installed base growing rapidly and especially in China
Example: Xennia ceramic inkjet system sales growing + 100% year on year for 3 years

Ceramic tile market

Worldwide ceramic tile output > 9,500M sq m (2010)

Production focussed in Asia and EU (2008 numbers)

Asia 58.8%

EU 19.4%
Central/South America 9.8%
Other Europe (incl. Turkey) 5.2%

Equipment sales in 2008 > $800M

Difficult economic conditions in 2008
Good recovery now
Inkjet growth accelerating

Source: Ceramic World Review

Ceramics market drivers

Key market drivers are:
Shorter product lifecycles

Natural randomisation
Desire for greater product differentiation

Bevelled edges
Textured surfaces
Customisation and personalisation

Wider range of tile types

Different firing regimes for different materials

Thinner tiles use less material (inkjet is non contact)

Shorter print runs
Cost reduction

Reduced inventory and higher yield

Quality

Ceramics market need

Market requirement for ceramic tile printing

Printing system
High productivity (>900 m2/hr)

High reliability (>98% up time)

Cost effective
High quality (300+dpi, greyscale,)
Good colour performance (4+ colours)

Inks
Excellent colour performance when fired
Good reliability in system

Lower operating costs

Printing cost
Typical analogue versus digital print run costs
4.50
Analogue run cost (/m2)
Digital run cost (/m2)

Print run cost (/m2)

4.00
3.50
3.00

2.50
2.00
1.50
1.00
0.50
0.00
0

500

Print run1000
length (m2)

1500

2000

Comparison of printing costs for analogue and digital

Key advances for ceramics

Advanced pigmented inks
Ceramic pigment dispersion technology
Stable and reliable jetting

Fixed array
Ultimate productivity in single pass printing
Need excellent reliability

Recirculating technology
Recirculating printheads and ink systems
High ink/printhead reliability

Variable image technology

Print each image differently on the fly

Example of a ceramic tile inkjet printer

Fixed array, single pass recirculating system
Features
Variable image printing

Print speed 29 m/min (different modes available)

High resolution (300 or 600 dpi, 8 level greyscale)
Multi-colour decoration (4-6 colours)

Print widths 560 mm or 720 mm

High reliability from recirculating technology

Optional maintenance station

Hope Ceramics Inkjet tile printer

Foshan, China

Textile market
Over 21Bn metres printed globally
Market value $165Bn

Overall growth 2% CAGR

Technology (2007)
40% rotary screen printing
40% flatbed screen

19% other traditional

1% digital

Regional mix
50% Asia,15% Europe, 11% North America

Digital printing growing rapidly (20% CAGR)

Source: Gherzi Research 2008

Digital textile market

RTR digital textile market 2010
Hardware $137m (6% growth)

Ink $454m (15% growth)

Printed output value $1.3Bn (13% growth)

DTG digital textile market 2010

Hardware $184m
23% growth for ~10,000 high end units

Ink $145m (32% growth)

Printed output $2.45Bn (35% growth)

Systems
Mimaki (and Mimaki based), Roland, Mutoh (low end)
Robustelli, Reggiani, Konica Minolta, Osiris (high end)

Inks from Huntsman, Dupont, Xennia, Dystar, BASF, Kiian, Sensient etc

Source: IT Strategies Spring 2009

Textile market drivers

Drivers towards digital printing
Reduced time to introduce new designs (few hours versus several days)

Lower energy consumption

Lower water and materials consumption

Reduced cost to introduce new designs (no requirement to make screens)

Competitive for shorter runs

Example: lower cost below1,200m for 8 colour screen versus typical digital
Current typical digital cost 3-5/m2

Average run length decreasing

Now below 2,000m, was 3,500m in 1994

Promise of even lower digital costs, lower at all run lengths

Huge potential for digital textile printing

Source: Gherzi 2008

Textile market need

Market requirement for RTR textiles

Printing system
High productivity (>300 m2/hr)

High reliability (>98% up time)

Cost effective (Cost ()/productivity(m2/hr) <2000)

High quality (600+dpi, greyscale, 6+ colours)

Inks
Excellent colour performance (competitive with analogue)
Excellent fastness performance (competitive with analogue)

Ink costs that give printed cost < analogue for required run length

Inkjet is independent of run length

Inkjet competitive for short runs

Long run cost due to ink price
Competitive at all run lengths

inks for mass production

New concept

1.6-3.0m

Two print bars printing complementary patterns

WO 2009/056641

New concept
Reciprocating diagonal continuous single pass printing

Diagonal printing
High productivity
All nozzles are used efficiently
Continuous substrate motion

Quality
Greyscale high resolution printing

Disguise missing nozzles & head variability through software algorithms

Redundancy in software, not spare nozzles
No banding

Maintenance without stopping line

Same proven technology as XY systems

High reliability printheads

Flexibility to vary time spent on maintenance

In action

Inkjet textile finishing

Inkjet printers for textile finishing processes
Standalone
Integrated in existing finishing lines

Dust cleaning unit

Textile Finisher
UV

Printing blanket

IR

Conventional Dryer

Conventional Dryer

Textile value chain

Current textile production technology is labour intensive
Process automation will reduce labour content in costs

Variable costs currently high for inkjet

Inkjet machines will consume tons of ink

Economy of scale dictates lower ink prices

No fundamental reason for prices being higher

Low cost location becomes less important

Logistics will be the key component to control

Digital finishing
Major benefits of digital finishing provided by inkjet
Benefits
Multi functionality
Single sided application possible

Two sides can have different functions

Patterning

Functionality applied efficiently to textile surface only

Highly consistent coat weight

Environmental and energy savings

Not influenced by underlying substrate variations

Not influenced by bath concentration and dosing variations

Inkjet finishing
Inkjet approach to digital finishing
Modelling droplet interaction with textile and patterning processes
Pragmatic experimentation with new functionalities
Monitoring of textile and the jetting process

Applications
Slow release technology

Digital dyeing
Hydrophobic coatings

UV
Antimicrobial

Functional materials
Hydrophobic
Comfort of cotton material on skin side
Water and dirt repellent function on outside

UV/EB cured coatings

More rapid, compact in-line processing
More energy efficient than thermal curing

Antimicrobial
New functional materials possible to create effect

Selective deposition, efficient usage

Single sided, patterned to required areas

Examples of functional materials

Inkjet for manufacture

Use inkjet to:
Coat
Create manufacturing processes
Manufacture products
Inkjet printing difficult materials
Pigments (including inorganic), phosphors, metals

Polymers
Functional materials

Key inkjet ink technologies

Pigment and polymer dispersion

Solvent based and UV cure chemistries

Renewable energy
Concerns about
Sustainability
Global warming
Pollution

Lead to increasing trend for clean, renewable energy

Solar photovoltaic

Solar thermal
Wind

Tidal
Geothermal

Solar photovoltaic and wind have greatest potential

Renewable energy proportion still very low (0.8% in 2002)

Solar energy generation

Huge potential for energy generation
840 W/m2 reaches Earths surface during daylight
e.g. 1600 TW strikes continental USA
All electricity needs met with 10% efficient devices covering 2% of area

(Interstate highways currently cover 1.5% of area)

Solar energy harvesting

Thermal heat from sun heats water

Used for hot water and swimming pools

Photovoltaic energy from sun used to generate electricity
Can be used for any purpose

Solar photovoltaics
Types of photovoltaic (PV) (solar cells) available

Conventional (inorganic)
1st generation crystalline Si
2nd gen poly-Si, a-Si, CdTe or CIGS
Input energy creates electron-hole pairs
Separated by internal field

Generates photocurrent

Organic (small molecule or polymer)

Heterojunction design incorporates:
Electron transport layer (ETL) and hole transport layer (HTL)

Input energy creates excitons

ETL/HTL interface drives dissociation into electrons and holes

Standard materials P3HT and C60 derivatives

OPV schematic

P3HT bandgap 1.9 eV

PCBM LUMO-P3HT HOMO separation ~ 1eV

Carrier mobilities 10-4 cm2/Vs
Christoph Brabec and James Durrant, SolutionProcessed Organic Solar Cells, MRS Bulletin, 33, 670
(2008)

Device efficiencies >4%

Solar photovoltaics
Key figures of merit for PV
Efficiency

Percentage of incident energy converted into electrical energy

Includes collection efficiency as well as conversion efficiency

Cost
Measured in $ (or )/Wp
Current typical cost 2-8$/Wp

Need to reduce significantly

Lifetime

Minimum 3-5 years

Desirable 20-25 years

Key cost drivers

Key to reducing cost of PV

Lower cost materials

Lower cost manufacturing
Continuous
Additive (no waste)

Flexible

Manufacturing techniques
Traditional semiconductor techniques
Thermal/electron beam evaporation

CVD/MOCVD etc
Other coating techniques

Spin coating
Spray coating
Printing
Flexo/gravure printing
Screen printing

Inkjet printing

Traditional techniques
Thermal/electron beam evaporation

Material is heated and evaporates

Deposits onto substrate and layer grows
CVD/MOCVD
Material made into volatile compound
Compound decomposes to deposit material

Spin coating
Material in solution spun on flat surface
Uniform coating with evaporation of solvent
Spray coating
Solution sprayed on surface

Solvent evaporates

Technology comparison
Technology

Applicability

Scalability

Productivity

Materials
Wastage

Film
quality

Process
type

Multiple
layers?

Thermal
evaporation
(vacuum)

Inorganic/
small
molecule

Low

Low (batch)

Moderate

High

Subtractive

Yes but
slow

CVD (low
pressure)

Inorganic/
small
molecule

Low

Low (batch)

Moderate

High

Subtractive

Yes but
slow

Spin-coating

Polymer/small
molecule

Low

Low (batch)

Poor

Medium

Subtractive

Yes but
slow

Spray-coating
or doctor
blade

Polymer/small
molecule

High

High

Poor

Low

Subtractive

Yes

Screen or
gravure
printing

Inorganic/
polymer/small
molecule

Medium

Very high

Moderate

Medium

Additive

Yes but
damage?

Inkjet printing

Inorganic/
polymer/small
molecule

High

High

Good

Medium

Additive

Yes

Gas phase versus solution phase deposition

Low cost manufacturing

Inkjet has the potential to allow low cost manufacturing of PV
Can create a new market dynamic for solar energy production
Need to deposit

PV materials
Contacts

Applications for low cost PV

Low cost, flexible PV allows
Lower cost of conventional power generation PV
Easier installation
Return on investment reasonable for mass market

Enable new applications not currently possible/significant

Power generation for mobile devices
Power generation for signage

Power generation in clothing

Applications example
Sestar Technologies LLC
SolarTurf

PV incorporated into synthetic grass

Light absorbing layer can be coloured

Absorbing grass is green!

Make compatible with existing consumer products

Allows power generation from existing areas

Lower cost of lighting public and private areas

Applications example
Sestar Technologies LLC

SolarFabrics
PV incorporated into clothing
Military and civilian

Absorbing materials in all colours

Allows power generation from clothing

Powering phones, radios, iPods, GPS

Powering active camouflage

Applications example
Sestar Technologies LLC
SolarFabrics
PV incorporated into tents, awnings, etc
Multiple colours

Allows power generation to campsites, homes and buildings

Powering portable devices
Lower cost of lighting public and private areas

Market size
Photovoltaic market growing significantly
20-25% per annum

$30Bn industry generating 32GW

Faster introduction impeded by costs

Impact from
Subsidies
Regulations (e.g. specified renewables percentage)

Emissions taxes
Low cost solutions have massive potential

Outlook
Potential
Solar power generation everywhere!
Based on low cost production

Challenges
Increase efficiency
OPV ~1/3 efficiency of conventional

Increase stability
OPV relatively unstable

Outlook

Thin film (2nd gen) market share in the global solar PV market
Grew from 2.8% in 2001 to 25% in 2009

Set to increase its share to ~38% by 2020

Impact of lower cost technologies already clear

Significant share from emerging technologies expected 2015

Source: GBI research, F-Forecast

Outlook
Inkjet deposition ready to replace conventional techniques
2008: First organic solar cell fabricated with inkjet

Commercialised inkjet PV production in 2009

Report 1.5m wide, 40m/min

Inkjet printed electronics expected to grow

62M in 2008
3,079 in 2013

Source: Plus Plastic Electronics, Pira International