Pascal Juéry: View From the Leaders Summit

Pascal Juéry, CEO of Agfa, a leading global supplier of inkjet printing solutions, was a speaker at FuturePrint’s recent Leaders Summit, providing an in-depth view into the company’s vision for inkjet. We asked him to look back and summarise.

Pascal Juery, CEO, Agfa

Pascal, how do you look back on your Leaders Summit session?

I was very pleased about the opportunity to present Agfa’s view on inkjet printing development, and to highlight our inkjet expertise. I tried to explain our technology position. We have a unique in-house know-how of all key technical elements of inkjet printing solutions, including the printer, the software, and last but not least, the inks. As no other, we understand the interactions between the different parts of the solutions. That is why, for instance, an ink set is never developed as a stand-alone element, but always in view of the full system.

I was excited to explain that Agfa has a lot to offer from a technology perspective. The FuturePrint platform is very helpful to connect to the key players as well as the industries and to communicate about our activities related to inkjet printing.

“The success of inkjet solutions will depend on how well they are tuned to market demands.”

The audience is especially interested in industrial inkjet printing. What is the focus of Agfa?

Our Industrial Inkjet unit focuses on inkjet applications where printing is part of an industrial production process. It takes an integrated solution approach for specific market segments, and an inks only-approach in other cases. Our integrated solutions address the need for high-end small series production, while our ink business supplies large-volume printing equipment, sometimes specifically developed and designed to meet the requirements of our industrial partners. In either case, we are in contact with the specific industry to make sure our solutions fit their needs and economics.

The success of inkjet solutions will depend on how well they are tuned to market demands. Agfa is very well placed to do so because of its vast know-how of all parts of the solution, as well as through its partnerships with key players in inkjet and different industries. I would like to mention that we are also an inkjet technology leader in the field of sign & display inkjet printing, offering different wide-format printing systems.

Which segments do you consider to be ready for inkjet printing?

Agfa is on the market in décor and leather. We also target packaging applications, for example printing on corrugated. Inkjet has proved its technological capabilities; the focus now mostly lies on the productivity of the solutions. The most important trend is the evolution from the printing of special series to real production printing. Ink will stay a key element of the success of inkjet.

We see that both UV-curable inks and water-based inks keep growing, with each ink technology having its own strengths. We also recognise that sustainability is becoming increasingly important, which is why our development is tuned to offer water-based low VOC solutions. Sustainability is a key element during the development phase.

Watch the full Leaders Summit session with Pascal Juéry here.

Find out more about Agfa’s activities in the field of industrial inkjet on https://www.agfa.com/printing/industrial/