Agfa to showcase new industrial printing applications

Agfa will show how inkjet printing lends itself to integration in a wide variety of highly demanding industrial production environments at a show in Germany next month.

Agfa launched into inkjet printing at PacPrint in 2001, and since then has developed some of the world's biggest selling wide format inkjet printers. With a flat plates business, inkjet is where the company's growth opportunities exist.

For commercial printers, the opportunity is to move away from commodity printing into niche, higher margin, sectors. Agfa will showcase applications in flooring; laminates; corrugated and flexible packaging; printed ciruit boards; and printed electronics at the show.

The company says inkjet “delivers the speed and flexibility that brands are looking for to meet their customers’ challenging and varying requirements”.

Agfa says that in industrial printing, the printing process is integrated into an existing manufacturing process, and so is compatible with pre- and post-printing processes. In direct relationship with system integrators, Agfa is developing specific high-performance industrial inkjet inks for use often custom-made OEM printing equipment.

Agfa’s top-performing UV inkjet inks already fuel many OEM printing solutions, delivering high print quality and day-to-day reliable print results, but also a wide colour gamut, jetting reliability, shelf life and batch-to-batch consistency. Jettable primer and varnish complete the range.

Agfa’s booth at InPrint in Munich next month will feature multiple print samples from its customers, with a focus on direct-to-shape product printing and interior decoration.

Agfa says the interest in aqueous inkjet inks for industrial applications is strongly growing as they provide benefits in terms of ecology, cost-efficiency, and safety. At InPrint 2019, Agfa will present its developments to date.

One of the industries which is looking for inkjet printing solutions is the laminate flooring and furniture market. Together with Unilin, leader in high-quality laminate production, Agfa has designed water-based ink-primer sets for high-speed roll-to-roll digital printing on decor paper. This combination of dedicated primers from Unilin and perfectly matched Agfa inks delivers a wide colour gamut with print quality and low ink consumption.

Agfa will also show its aqueous inkjet ink developments for packaging with a focus on corrugated and flexible packaging. In this market segment, inkjet printing meets brands’ demand for personalised packaging at an acceptable cost, while also offering them just-in-time delivery and supporting them in their search for more ecological alternatives.

Agfa is also globally active in the field of inkjet inks for printed electronics and printed circuit boards (PCB) production. The company offers inkjet inks for legend printing, solder mask and etch resist, allowing for total flexibility in lot size, variable data printing and position-dependent layer thickness.

In addition, Agfa is developing nanosilver inks which feature highest conductivity with low silver deposition (one micron DFT) and deliver high-resolution printing to create smaller, lighter and more cost-effective printed electronics devices.