*NEWS*12TH ANNUAL EURO INK-JET CONFERENCE/2004-10-13

Ink jet Printing Continues to make technology advancements in product functionality, cost performance, print quality, and colour printing capabilities. Such improvements have made ink jet printing the leading digital printer technology and have enabled the development of new markets and applications. In addition to personal computer printing, applications such as wide format printing, photo quality printers, multifunction printers, digital presses, colour office printers, and industrial printing are providing market opportunities for ink jet printing technology, but in a very competitive environment.

This conference programme is designed to provide participants with a comprehensive assessment of technology and market development trends that will determine ink jet printing’s role in the overall printing marketplace. The formal sessions and informal networking sessions provide a unique, interactive environment for leading hardware, consumables, components, system integrator and user company representatives to network and develop an improved understanding of current developments and other forces that are shaping ink jet printing’s role in the evolving digital printing industry.
 

• Learn the latest advancements and developments in ink jet printing technologies that are advancing the product and application state-of-the-art

• Receive information on key issues influencing your company’s decisions and directions in the development, implementation and use of ink jet printing technology

9:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m. Conference Registration

11:00 a.m. Session 1
STATE-OF-THE INK JET INDUSTRY

WELCOME AND INTRODUCTIONS
Alvin G. Keene, President, Information Management Institute, Inc., Carrabassett Valley, Maine, USA & Director, IMI Europe, Cambridge, UK

TECHNOLOGY DEVELOPMENTS AND FUTURE ADVANCEMENTS 
Michael Willis, Managing Director, Pivotal Resources, Cambridge, UK
Tom Ashley, Director, Pivotal Resources USA, Lexington, Kentucky, USA

• Latest products & developments
• Drupa
• The patent scene
– Emergence of MEMS technology
– New players
• Ink jet as a manufacturing process
– Printed electronics
– Printed displays
– Bio-medical applications
– Other materials deposition

INK JET – NOW ON THE RADAR SCREENS OF INVESTORS
Dr Justin Hayward, Managing Director, Cambridge Investment Research Ltd., Cambridge, UK

• Changing attitudes of investors to ink jet
• Appeal of ink jet to investors
• Current ink jet revenues & geographic breakdown
• Value chain analysis
• Market structure
– Private
– Public
– Independents
– Subsidiary
• Market lifecycles
– Coding & Marking
– Graphic communications
• Recent deals & why: Fit analysis
– Mergers & acquisitions
– Joint ventures

2:30 p.m. Session 2 
EVOLUTION OF DESK-TOP AND GRAPHICS MARKETS

EUROPEAN END-USER MARKET RESEARCH AND ANALYSIS: WIDE & GRAND FORMAT GRAPHICS: PRINTERS, MEDIA AND INK
Stewart Partridge, Managing Director, Web Consulting Ltd., Abingdon, UK

• Sales history and forecasts: Wide & grand format ink jet printers, media and inks
• Continued emergence of new ink/printer technologies
• Overall market growth and cannibalisation
• Results and analysis from European end-user research
• How digital matches up to screen, photo and CAS technologies: 5 year forecast
• Conclusions and implications

INDUSTRIAL INK JET MARKETS – THE CHOICES FACING VENDORS
Mark Hanley, President, IT Strategies, Hanover, Massachusetts, USA

• Where in the Value Chain?
• What is achievable over 5 years in technology and revenue terms?
• Who should partner with whom?

DESK-TOP INK JET PRINTHEAD TECHNOLOGY – STATE OF THE ART
Rob Beeson, R&D Competitive Intelligence Team Leader, Hewlett-Packard, Corvallis, Oregon, USA

• Comparison of ink jet printhead technologies
– Brother
– Canon
– Fuji-Xerox
– Hewlett-Packard
– Lexmark
– Ricoh
– Seiko Epson
• Competing technologies for digital photography
– Dye sublimation
– Polaroid Opal
• Computer modelling ink jet design simulation

DIGITAL GARMENT PRINTING – OPPORTUNITIES & SOLUTIONS
Ofer Ben-Zur, CEO, Kornit Digital, Magshimim, Israel

• The finished garment printing market
• Segments within the garment printing market
• Advantages & disadvantages of digital printing over conventional screen-printing & transfer technologies
• Market needs and wants
• The design of a digital garment printer
• Digital ink for the garment printing market

THE NEED FOR SECURITY IN INK JET PRINTED DOCUMENTS
Gerry LaPorte, Forensic Scientist, US Secret Service, Washington, DC, USA

• Increasing use of ink jet for forgery
– Counterfeiting
– Ransom notes
– Threatening letters
– Contracts
– Wills
• Forensic analysis techniques
• Need for forensic traceability
• New opportunities for security in ink jet printing

7:00 p.m. Reception

Thursday, October 21, 2004

9:00 a.m. Session 3
REVOLUTION OF INDUSTRIAL PRINTING 

THE CHALLENGE OF INTEGRATION
Paul Morgavi, President & CEO, Impika, Aubagne, France

• Applications
• Resolutions and speeds
• Substrates and inks
• Print engine design 
• System integration and parameters
• Next challenges for ink jet

FASTJET
Stefan Slembrouck, Product Director, Sun Chemical Europe, Ternat, Belgium

• Single pass digital print
– Technology
– Visions
– Potentials
– Deliverables 
• A business solution for corrugated sheet printing: capital expenditure, maintenance cost, applications
• An enabler for new marketing dynamics: personalisation of packaging, brand protection, event promotion 
• Marketing road map: from the demonstration of an innovative concept to the successful commercialisation of a reliable print technology

POWER AND GLORY, THE FULL CONDUCTIVE INK JET STORY
Dr Alan Hudd, President & CTO, Xennia Technology Ltd, Royston, UK

• Conductive ink jet technology
– Two years on
• How the technology works
– Chemistry
– Process
– Technology options
– IPR position
• Properties and performance
– Electronic properties
– Ink jet properties
– Complementary techniques
• Products and Status
– RFID
– Rapid prototype design
– Product decoration
– Other applications
• Partnership programmes

COLOUR TECHNOLOGIES FOR INK JET DEVICES
Dirk De Baer, Senior Colour Scientist, Agfa monotype, Mortsel, Belgium

• Special colour requirements of ink jet devices
• Digital photography
– Extended colour gamuts push colour technology to new levels
– Automatic colour correction
– Required gamut for digital photography
– Relationships with digital minilabs
• Commercial printing
– High-quality colour standards
– Specific colour problems & solutions
– Multi-density inks
– Non-standard primary colours
– Six-colour pitfalls
– Evolution of displays and impact on colour proofing

HOW TO USE INK JET INTEGRATORS
Clive Ayling, Consultant, The Technology Partnership plc, Melbourn, UK

• Why pay for third party integration support?
• What the integrator can do, what you must do
• Justifying the investment – building a business case
• Diverse examples of ink jet products developed for clients by TTP

2:30 p.m. Session 4
ADVANCES IN PRINTHEAD TECHNOLOGY

SHAPED PIEZO SILICON: THE NEXT GENERATION OF PRINTHEAD TECHNOLOGY FROM SPECTRA
James Gill, European Sales Director, Marc K. Torrey, Product Planning & Business Development Director, Spectra, Inc., Lebanon, NH, USA

• Today’s digital graphics markets and printhead solutions
• Emerging trends in graphic applications
• M-Class: Spectra’s next generation printhead family 
• Shaped Piezo Silicon: Breakthrough technology using silicon MEMS
• The M-Class Jet Module: Core building block for new product family
• The M-Class printhead: A flexible platform for a broad range of applications
• Implications for the future 

DEVELOPING INK JET MARKETS
David Frew, Group Marketing Manager, Xaar Ltd, Cambridge, UK

• Market demands
• Ink jet cross over
• Lowering the barriers
• OmniDot platform
– OmniDot 380
– OmniDot 760

INNOVATIVE PIEZO INK JET PRINTHEAD TECHNOLOGY
Dr Jaewoo Chung, Project Leader, MEMS Lab, Samsung Advanced Institute of Technology, Suwon, Korea

• New MEMS-based piezo ink jet printhead
• Manufacturing process for printhead
– Fluidic channels and diaphragm prepared with micro-machined Si single crystals thick film
– Piezo actuator formed on diaphragm by high temperature annealing, producing bonded structure in a flesh without any adhesive conductive layer
• Printhead performance and capability
– High reliability
– High firing frequency 
– High viscosity inks used
– Easy customisation for new applications
• Applications with this technology

INDUSTRIAL IJ HEAD – APPLICABLE TO WIDE RANGE OF INKS
Dr Shinichi Nishi, General Manager Ink Jet Head R&D, Konica Minolta, Hachioji, Tokyo, Japan

• Experience of wide range of inks, including Solvent, UV-curable, oil
• Polymer containing, non-Newtonian etc.
• Optimisation of wave form
• Simulation with FLOW-3D
– Pressure wave
– Droplet formation
– Heat distribution
• Collaboration with ink & printer integrators

SUPPLIERS FORUM
Five minute presentations related to technology, capabilities, services, new product introductions etc. The Suppliers Forum is open to all conference registrants.

7:00 p.m. Reception

Friday, October 22, 2004

9:00 a.m. Session 5
INK & MEDIA – WHAT’S NEW?

NEW DEVELOPMENTS IN UV INK JET INKS
Dr Carole Noutary, Technical Manager, Sericol Imaging, Broadstairs, UK

• Benefits and application of UV ink jet technology
• Technical limitations with UV ink jet today
– Flexibility
– Durability
• New flexible ink developments
– What chemistry?
– Benefits and drawbacks
– Development status & results
• What’s next for UV ink jet

INK JET PRINTING WITH NITROGEN INERTING – ALL HOT AIR?
Peter Walshe, Business Development Manager, SunJet, Bath, UK
 
• The pro’s and con’s of curing in air
– Oxygen inhibition
• Benefits of inert atmosphere curing
– Speed
– Low odour
– Lower UV power/dose requirement
• Application in high-speed printing
– Imprinting
– Corrugated liner printing
• Application in food packaging

BIO-INK FOR SECURITY APPLICATIONS
Prof Dr Norbert Hampp, Institut Fur Physikalische Chemie, Philipps-Universität Marburg, Germany

• Biomaterial comprising ink formulations
• Bacteriorhodopsin (BR) a biological photochrome
• Processing of BR-inks into security features for documents
• Properties of BR-inks (light fastness, cyclicity, photochromic shift …)
• Combined features of photochromism, data storage and traceability
• Biomaterials – a useful material class for security applications?

MADE IN CHINA -THE FATAL ATTRACTION OF LOW PRICES
Andi Edan, Marketing Manager Europe, CGATE, London, UK

• Tool kit for trading with China
– A perspective on the issues involved
• Why large format?
– What makes China the right place and the right time
• Quality issues
– Finding the right partners
• Good and bad products from China and why
• Products made to your own specification