The shift from traditional printing to inkjet printing: What should be taken into account?

Ink components, their interaction with a substrate, their performance in a printing process and safety aspects of printed products are factors affecting usability of inkjet printing method in different applications. There are several unique features in inkjet printing, which makes it an attractive printing method such as cost efficiency in short printing runs and potential ability to print on any substrate (flexible, rigid or fragile). Multilayer structures or even 3D objects are possible to create by inkjet printing. In the area of conventional printing, inkjet is gaining ground rapidly in the application areas like wide format graphics, direct mailing, textile printing and publishing. In addition, new applications in the areas of bio- and nanotechnology, decorative and fabrics printing, electronics, mechanical devices and combinatorial chemistry have been researched during last years. Inkjet printing sets strict demands on the printing materials - printing inks and substrates. A better knowledge of the basic mechanisms of the dynamic interaction between ink and substrate is needed to produce more reliable and appropriate quality specifications for printing surfaces. In addition, product safety issues are important in many applications like pharmaceuticals, toys, and food. In this presentation we will discuss the many challenges related to the shift from traditional printing to inkjet printing such as present ink and substrate properties, their interactions, the resulting print quality and safety issues of the end product and how safety is formed in production chain. This underlines effective communications along the print product value chain in order to ensure the safety of end product.