There are few industries that have had a quicker or more comprehensive technological revolution than the ceramics industry.

FuturePrint recently visited ITACA in Castellon, and the team leading the digital inkjet ink business. During our visit, we discovered a treasure trove of amazing applications and designs for digital ceramic printing, something that I had not seen before.

We met with Alejandro Monzonis who is the technical lead, and Edgar Facundo, the commercial lead, along with their senior team responsible for the development and commercial success of ITACA digital inks for ceramics.

Clearly, one of the drivers of this inkjet revolution for ceramics has been ITACA. This huge brand and ink producer manufactures the ink that is used for the rotogravure process well before inkjet came into existence. Now, the company makes a significant amount of the total ink used in the industry with a Global market share of 26%.

As you may already be aware, inkjet technology entered, then revolutionised production in a few short years. Enabled by the recirculating inkjet print head design that suits pigment inks, the ceramics industry took inkjet very quickly indeed.

Once inkjet became accepted as meeting the required printing standard, then the driver for fast change became economic. With lower-cost production, better productivity, improved finishing and fewer breakages - the stars aligned for inkjet.

As Edgar Facundo explained in our meeting. There are three main drivers for the change for inkjet in ceramics:

1. Higher Printing Quality. With rotogravure printing the printing output could achieve 120 DPI. In comparison, the first inkjet print heads were able to print at 300 DPI, and now the dot is even smaller, so the printing quality has improved dramatically - while offering new design opportunities.

2. Higher Productivity. At times, the Rotogravure process can destroy the tile. In comparison, inkjet does not as it is non-contact and this does not slow down production either.

3. Cost Reduction. Inkjet enables the reduction of cost while the maintenance of the print head cost is comparatively low.

These are compelling drivers for change. Consequently, the revolution was fast and wholesale. During our visit, the team presented some compelling stats. In 2010, there were only 333 digital machines in the global ceramics market. Fast forward to 2020, and there are 9,237!!

Another factor for this fast shift has to be the fact that the European industry is centred on just two locations, as the characteristics of the soil in these areas led to the establishment of a ceramic tile manufacturing community and a cluster of businesses existed there already. These two centres are Castellon in Spain and Sassuolo in Italy. The incumbent producers adopted inkjet quickly and comprehensively, making the wide format graphics sector look relatively slow in adopting digital printing! It just goes to show that when people can clearly see success, this then leads to accelerated change, not least because nobody wants to be left behind!

While initially, the shift to digital may have been driven by a powerful combination of economic and technological factors, what we saw at ITACA was pure creativity. As the ink and the inkjet head technology matures and improves all the time, the design possibilities for the ceramics sector are now being truly explored.

For example, inkjet printing onto ceramic tiles can now produce a stunning marble effect, or indeed the printing onto ceramics that enables an amazing wood finish is simply superb! It looks so real it's hard to tell the difference. Anyone interested in exploring and learning the possibilities just needs to visit the ITACA team in Castellon and walk around their wonderful showroom.

Pursuant to Altadia’s view that “Every surface can be (digitally) decorated”, in 2015 the Group decided to replicate its success as a worldwide leader with ceramic inks, in neighbouring sectors under Itaca Brand.

Armed with profound expertise in pigment inks and inkjet technology, as well as strategic alliances with OEMs, Itaca's Diversification Team identifies new business opportunities. Their mission: facilitate digitization for Altadia's customers and partners, converting prospects into industrial realities. Across diverse sectors, including Building Materials, Textiles and Packaging, dedicated teams collaborate closely with R&D to foster digital innovation.

The fact is that as other industries begin to adopt inkjet at a similar level to ceramics, it is understandable that OEMs and end-users will want to work with ink partners and suppliers who understand at a strategic R&D level how important it is to get the ink formulation correct at the beginning of the process. We hear many times that trying to retrospectively alter the ink chemistry when the engineering phase of development is too advanced slows down the development process and compromises the overall quality of the finished printing product. With ITACA, an ink partner with this scale, know-how and infrastructure is really important!! It would go a long way to de-risk investment in innovation.

We would like to thank the team at ITACA for their time and their enthusiasm. We were really inspired by the showroom and the discussions we had.

We learned a lot and look forward to hopefully developing more interesting stories with them and sharing news through FuturePrint in the future!