The upcoming Inkjet Conference (TheIJC) 2017, Oct. 24-25 at the Swissotel Düsseldorf/Neuss, Germany, is focusing on inkjet engineering and inkjet chemistry. Organized by ESMA, the European Specialist Printing Manufacturers Association, this is the fourth edition of TheIJC.
 
More than 450 attendees are expected this year, and organizers are excited about this year’s program.
 
“TheIJC had to build its reputation but it proved very quickly that the ‘platform’ concept worked very well – it combined the networking arena populated by exhibitor tabletops with two presentation tracks,” said ESMA CEO Peter Buttiens. “The number of exhibitors and delegates has grown over the years and the current edition will feature three presentation tracks and 80 exhibitor stands. When approaching the total of 500 participants, we are already preparing future expansion of the concept. They key strength of the conference remains the education about all aspects of inkjet technology combined with excellent networking and business opportunities.”
  
“As inkjet grows in new markets and new applications, so has TheIJC,” added Steve Knight, co-founder of the conference. “New technology is fueling this growth and TheIJC is leading the way.”
 
TheIJC will feature morethan 50 technical presentations. Buttiens said that there will be a particular focus on printhead manufacturers, and textile and pharmaceutical applications are becoming an important subject this year.
 
“We have managed to bring together several new exhibiting and presenting companies that will deliver new expertise for building the next steps of industrial inkjet,” he noted. “A chain is only as strong as its weakest link and this applies to inkjet technology. Our comprehensive approach includes all aspects of engineering and chemistry. Every little detail is important in the final concept and design.”
 
“As always, ‘inkjet’ is the focus,” Knight said. “This year we have introduced plenary sessions for printheads and expanded to three tracks for the rest of the conference. We aim to broaden the understanding of the wide range of topics that make up inkjet and our guidelines to our exhibitors are to cover a technical topic to an audience of a different technical or scientific background.”
        
“From ink components to finished ink, lab equipment for measurement and analysis, curing and drying system, software electronics and integration – it’s a wide focus at TheIJC,” addedKnight. “New topics include vision systems for inspection and verification of digital printed images, whilst as before the academic track showcases university research. For the first time we will have so many presentations analyzing the enabling power of inkjet for the pharmaceutical industry.”
  
Buttiens noted that the event will actually start already on Monday, Oct. 23 with a series of free workshops giving introduction to inkjet and chosen applications.
 
“We expect the earlier mentioned plenary sessions in the morning of each conference day to be a real highlight,” added Buttiens. “By merging the conference rooms, we make sure that no one from the couple of hundreds of attendees will miss the presentations about core printhead technology.”
 
“Personally, I’ll be following the printheads, the vision systems, the ink components,” Knight added. “I’ll also be looking for announcements in software and of particular interest are the pharmaceutical applications.” 
 
Understandably, the growth in inkjet is leading to similar expansion at TheIJC
 
“Last year we welcomed 66 exhibitors and 400 attendees in total,” Knight reported. “As we speak today, almost 80 tabletops have already been booked and we can realistically expect 450 or even 500 attendees.
 
“One could say, the growth of the conference reflects the evolution of the market,” added Knight. “Whichever market you are looking at, there are strong signs of growth. This may occur in different industries at different times and even within one market sector there are different adoption trends. All markets, whether ceramic tiles, packaging or biomedical applications, depend on the same core technology. Whether this is dispersion technology or rheology, software image manipulation or high speed electronics, all technologies combine to drive the market application. Printheads, ink, software, chemistry are all evolving and the technology and the market are not standing still.   
 
Buttiens added that 2014 was a good time to start TheIJC.
 
“By that time, inkjet developments had successfully implemented single pass in ceramic tile printing,” observed Buttiens. “The next step was textile single pass printing, and now the time is ripe to look at other industrial areas where inkjet changes the game. Inkjet really seizes its opportunity in a world where almost everything is immediately available – in flexible quantities and high levels of personalization.”
 
Even areas such as 3D printing offer great opportunities for inkjet printing.
 
“Industrial inkjet printing has realized that besides colors, the deposition of general purpose fluids is becoming critical to claim your place on the global market,” Buttiens said. “After years of hype around 3D printing, we can see how inkjet is building the future, too. It offers solutions to save costs, energy and deliver flexibility at the same time.”
 
Buttiens anticipates a hugely successful conference.
 
“Our campaign, ‘Let the Numbers Speak,’ expresses not only the growth of TheIJC but also the number of first time exhibitors,” he concluded. “More than one-third of the exhibitors and speakers will be presenting for the very first time and we consider it a big achievement for an event of that kind. The same applies to delegates – this year, again, more than 40% of those who booked will be newcomers. Our global approach and close engagement with the dynamic inkjet community build a solid foundation for the upcoming editions of TheIJC.”
 
The program can be seen at http://theijc.com/event-program. For more information, check out http://theijc.com.

Source: TheIJC