Digital printing has come a long way in recent years. Billboards, for example, have completely switched over to inkjet printing, while textiles and packaging are areas of growth. Inkjet ink producers see other markets becoming prominent, led by ceramic tiles.

“‘Expansion’ and ‘growth’ are challenging terms to use today given the impact of COVID-19, but there are segments of the inkjet space that I believe will recover faster given the long-term trends our customers are seeing at play,” said Jose Miguel Serrano, EFI’s senior business development manager. “I work in a division of EFI that focuses on industrial and new applications. One of the market segments my office handles, ceramic tile, is a mature market in terms of digital transformation, but we have seen growth in attach rates, and these growing ink volumes, through 2019.

“There is also an opportunity in single-pass inkjet production of flooring, furniture, concrete, polymer panels and other building materials,” Serrano said. “We have a Cubik line of printers coming to market that will really expand digital capabilities in the building materials space. The inks for those applications came out of very focused and strategic R&D, including the development of new mineral ink formulations for wood staining. While obviously tied to overall construction trends, as the construction market does recover on a broad scale, I believe there are forward-thinking manufacturers that will embrace the new opportunities single-pass digital presents.”

David Lopez, associate product manager, Professional Imaging, Epson America, also sees ceramics and home décor as areas with great potential.

“Inkjet printing continues to emerge in many new markets due to the popularity of customization,” Lopez noted. “Unique applications such as ceramics, wall coverings, and laminate flooring are starting to be widely produced with digital printers. The reason for this shift in popularity is due to the superior digital printing quality, and the similar cost efficiency of printing smaller orders and larger orders. In the past, customers needed to request larger orders in order to receive a fair price per square foot.”

Phil Jackman, global product manager, Digital, Sun Chemical, said that almost all areas of print are experiencing shorter run lengths and shorter lead-times, so the desire for digital print is omnipresent.

“It is whether the technical conditions, such as image quality and speed, can be fulfilled and at a price point that is economically viable, that determines the rate of adoption,” Jackman noted. “In ceramics, for instance, the case for digital was compelling 10 years ago and thus the rate of adoption was rapid. Other markets will probably not see that same rate of adoption and penetration as ceramics did. In most other markets, the existing analog presses are highly evolved, highly efficient and, most importantly, usually already paid for. However, the size of the total market and digital opportunities in all the various sectors of printing cannot be overlooked.”

“Non-traditional printing markets such as ceramics, wall coverings, textiles, etc. are examples of markets where digital printing has offered alluring benefits, but no one has yet been able to develop cost-effective, easy to use, complete solutions that meet end-user expectations,” Warren Catchpole, market manager – Wikoff Digital, said. “Until that happens, digital will continue to be a supplementary capability to traditional print processes. Fortunately, many of these markets are large enough that even fringe solutions still offer significant revenue and profit opportunities for OEMs, integrators and digital ink manufacturers. A good example of this is in flexible packaging, where we see significant interest being expressed by brand owners and converters who see the advantage of short-run, 4-color variable printing.”

Simon Daplyn, marketing manager, Sensient Imaging Technologies, said that Sensient is primarily dealing in textile markets where there is significant and growing interest in sustainability and innovative chemistry, enabling manufacturers and brands to have more environmentally responsible and efficient processes.

“For these markets, digital inkjet has the potential to dramatically reduce water and energy consumption, CO2 emissions and waste – for example, switching from screen to digital printing in this market can reduce up to 97% water and save up to 50% energy,” said Daplyn. “Another area we are seeing growth in is the decoration of food products. This is a market that requires a deeper regulatory understanding but has huge potential in the coming years, as it offers brands a way to both differentiate their product offering from the competition and add significant value.”

Marc Johnson, director of global product marketing for Memjet, reported that Memjet has OEM partners addressing a wide variety of segments.

“From traditional sheetfed and web-fed commercial applications like direct mail, billing, and publications, to more customized applications where the printing engine is a part of the manufacturing process for food packaging and carton applications,” Johnson added. “We are also working with OEMs that develop 3D applications. Earlier this year, we announced a partnership with MHM, a leading provider of textile printing equipment. This solution is the first textile printing application for Memjet. We’ve also worked with our partners to print on lots of different materials – sometimes exotic materials including metals. We’ve built partnerships with companies that specialize in primers and coatings to complement our own in-house ink chemistry teams and help drive inkjet into more applications.”

“We have seen an influx of unique opportunities for UV printing that were traditionally solvent-based applications,” said Jay Roberts, Roland DGA product manager, UV printers. “Unlike eco-solvent inks, UV inks cure instantly, which allows them to be printed on both coated and uncoated surfaces. This opens up the markets to UV printers and inks, primarily because the cost of uncoated material is so much less than coated substrates. Now, instead of printing and applying solvent-printed decals to various surfaces, thanks to UV technology, those decals can be direct-printed, saving time and reducing materials costs.”

Matthieu Carni, director Business Unit Inkjet at Siegwerk, said that Siegwerk will continue to focus on its core packaging market.

“Today, we do not plan to expand in other, i.e. non-packaging related, markets,” said Carni. “We will further focus our inkjet activities on our core markets for packaging and label applications. Our inkjet ink portfolio covers both UV inkjet solutions for a wide range of applications including self-adhesive labels, wet-glue labels for beverages, direct printing on 3D-packaging objects or blister and aluminum lids for pharma and food products as well as customized water-based inkjet ink solutions for tissue printing, digital printing on flexible packaging and corrugated board. It includes standard as well as migration optimized UV and water-based inkjet solutions.”