Dr Alan Hudd, Managing Director of Xennia, gave this talk at the 20th IMI Annual Inkjet Conference in Las Vegas, USA in Feb 2011. The talk discusses the challenges and opportunities for inkjet decoration in a number of applications, including ceramics, textiles and functional material printing for applications such as solar energy generation.

1. 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

2. 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

3. Xennia helps customers lower
operating costs, increase productivity
and simplify mass customised production
by revolutionising manufacturing processes
from inkjet ideas to production reality

4. Xennia develops & supplies digital solutions based on
inkjet modules, systems and inks for industrial
applications

5. Technology push to market pull

6. The changing landscape
Price competition Non-price competition
Existing arena Traditional
customers
New arena Inkjet proposition
Courtesy Mr Loek de Vries, Chairman and President, Royal TenCate

7. 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

8. Key industrial applications I
Textiles
Digital decoration of textiles: Ceramic tiles & tableware
Garment personalisation
Digital decoration of:
Reel-to-reel textile production
Ceramic wall/floor tiles
Flags, banners, awnings
Ceramic tableware
Soft furnishings
Promotional items

9. Key industrial applications II
Architectural
glass
Flooring & furniture
Digital glass printing applications: laminates
Direct print during manufacture
Print polymer laminate
Digital decoration of:
Direct print after manufacture Wood-effect flooring
(Direct printing and laminates)
Furnishings

10. Key industrial applications III
Product
decoration
Wall coverings
Digital decoration of:
Digital decoration of:
Consumer wallpaper
Automotive glass/headlamps/fairings/parts
Commercial wallpaper
Safety/automotive helmets
Commercial vinyl coverings
Security wristbands/identity cards
Optical fibres, wires and connectors
Consumer appliances/products
etc.

11. Examples of some key markets
Application Market Size Market Requirement Opportunity
Textiles Printed textiles $165Bn DTG printing with rapid Fast XY inkjet with UV inks
(Direct to garment – DTG) turnaround High productivity RTR with
(Reel to reel – RTR) Cost effective RTR printing aqueous dye inks
Ceramics >9500 M m2 tiles Wall/floor tile printing with High throughput fixed array
(Tiles) printed annually digital capability inkjet + ceramic inks
(Tableware) Yearly equipment sales Digital ceramic decal XY inkjet + ceramic inks
>$800m printing (sampling)
Fast XY + decal ink (decals)
Glass Printed glass $1.3Bn High productivity High throughput fixed array
(Architectural) production printing inkjet + high temp inks
(Automotive) Fast turnaround batch XY inkjet + PVB inks/UV inks
(Appliance) printing
Ability to print non-flat
Wall/floor/furniture Wall/floor covering Fast high quality digital wall High throughput fixed array
coverings printing $1.6Bn globally covering printing inkjet + solvent/aqueous inks
High productivity digital XY inkjet + UV inks
laminate/decor printing
Rigid furnishings

12. Technology pre-qualifiers
Industrial inkjet solutions must have the following:
User friendly and powerful software
Excellent image quality
Good durability of the printed image

13. 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

14. 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)

15. 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

16. 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

17. 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

18. 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

19. 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

20. 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

21. 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

22. Printing cost
Typical analogue versus digital print run costs
£4.50
£4.00 Analogue run cost (£/m2)
Digital run cost (£/m2)
£3.50
Print run cost (£/m2)
£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

23. 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

24. 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

25. 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

26. 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

27. 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

28. 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

29. 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

30. New concept
1.6-3.0m
Two print bars printing complementary patterns
WO 2009/056641

31. New concept
Reciprocating diagonal continuous single pass printing

32. 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

33. In action

34. Inkjet textile finishing
Inkjet printers for textile finishing processes
Standalone
Integrated in existing finishing lines
Dust cleaning unit
Textile Finisher
UV IR Conventional Dryer Conventional Dryer
Printing blanket

35. 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

36. 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

37. 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

38. 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

39. Examples of functional materials

40. 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

41. 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)

42. Solar energy generation
Huge potential for energy generation
840 W/m2 reaches Earth‟s 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

43. 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

44. OPV schematic
P3HT bandgap 1.9 eV
PCBM LUMO-P3HT HOMO separation ~ 1eV
Carrier mobilities 10-4 cm2/Vs
Device efficiencies >4%
Christoph Brabec and James Durrant, Solution-
Processed Organic Solar Cells, MRS Bulletin, 33, 670
(2008)

45. 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

46. Key cost drivers
Key to reducing cost of PV
Lower cost materials
Lower cost manufacturing
Continuous
Additive (no waste)
Flexible

47. 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

48. 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

49. Technology comparison
Technology Applicability Scalability Productivity Materials Film Process Multiple
Wastage quality type layers?
Thermal Inorganic/ Low Low (batch) Moderate High Subtractive Yes but
evaporation small slow
(vacuum) molecule
CVD (low Inorganic/ Low Low (batch) Moderate High Subtractive Yes but
pressure) small slow
molecule
Spin-coating Polymer/small Low Low (batch) Poor Medium Subtractive Yes but
molecule slow
Spray-coating Polymer/small High High Poor Low Subtractive Yes
or doctor molecule
blade
Screen or Inorganic/ Medium Very high Moderate Medium Additive Yes but
gravure polymer/small damage?
printing molecule
Inkjet printing Inorganic/ High High Good Medium Additive Yes
polymer/small
molecule
Gas phase versus solution phase deposition

50. 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

51. 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

52. 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

53. 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

54. 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

55. 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

56. 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

57. 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

58. 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