L. Dadok
FUJIFILM Dimatix, Inc.,
United States
Keywords: inkjet
Summary:
The world of inkjet printing is expanding into industrial markets and jetting of functional fluids. Inkjet printing of functional fluids as opposed to graphic inks has been around for more than two decades. It has a well established home in research and development work for rapidly configured experimental printing and precision dispensing. The benefits of inkjet are well known – high productivity, non-contact, digital workflow for precision application of small volumes of multiple materials. These features are ideal for additive manufacturing. As a result, today the application space for functional printing is steadily growing but the development of the total process is still challenging. Matching fluids to substrates and printheads can take substantial effort. However steady progress is being made and some applications are well on their way to being fully scaled and industrialized creating major market opportunities. The major markets are 3D printing, printed displays using OLED or quantum dot materials and sectors of printed electronics. These applications are now either in full or entering manufacturing phase which so far has been populated by niche applications. This presentation will survey and describe these applications and then move to the specific needs, challenges and designs for inkjet functional printing solutions. The presentation will discuss the ecosystem of resources, the available tools and some of the key steps in designing an inkjet system for functional printing as well as the market opportunity.