Summit Partner Spotlight: DoDxAct Ltd

The second FuturePrint Virtual Summit will be taking place from October 12th to October 16th. DoDxAct Ltd is a FuturePrint Virtual Summit Partner, and we caught up with its founder, Mark Bale, to discuss the panel session he will present and how his consulting activities contribute to the collaborative effort between suppliers in the inkjet market.

WHY HAS YOUR BUSINESS MADE THE DECISION TO PARTICIPATE IN THE SECOND FUTUREPRINT VIRTUAL SUMMIT? 

DoDxAct has decided to participate in the FuturePrint Virtual Summit because we believe in the power of technical cooperation to get industrial inkjet to market, and we want to share some of our independent experience gained from more than 17 years of contribution to getting leading-edge inkjet print processes to work.

This event brings excellent networking opportunities along with education on the latest printing technologies in the market today. Attending this virtual summit will be an excellent way to gain valuable insight about the printing industry and the opportunities for inkjet. We are especially interested in the following topics:

Industrial inkjet applications

Inkjet Inks

Inkjet hardware

Print Process

WHO WILL BE REPRESENTING YOU AT THE FUTUREPRINT VIRTUAL SUMMIT AND WHAT IS THEIR RESPONSIBILITY AND EXPERIENCE?

Mark Bale – As the technical impetus behind DoDxAct, Mark is responsible for the holistic support of clients with their inkjet developments. Leveraging his unrivalled breadth of experience on the uses of inkjet technology in all types of industries and applications, combined with an intimate practical understanding of the inks, equipment and processes that underpin them; Mark has built a reputation at DoDxAct for delivering innovation and insight into industrial inkjet.

CAN YOU PROVIDE AN OVERVIEW OF YOUR CHOSEN TOPIC AND WHY IT WILL BE OF INTEREST AND RELEVANCE TO SUMMIT ATTENDEES? 

The chosen topic is “The importance of Collaboration” because over the years this has proven to be the true source of success in the development of inkjet solutions for the industrial market.

In Mark’s inkjet career, which has spanned the development of inkjet processes from organic light-emitting diodes through to working on inks for high-speed single-pass printers, the key understanding has always between optimising all the crucial elements of the system to create the product. The first important relationship is the jetting performance of the ink in the head to define the required patterning (or coating). Hence the collaboration between ink/fluid manufacturers and print head suppliers is without doubt a cornerstone of inkjet success.

It must not be forgotten, however, that the ability to fire a print head *on demand* requires software and electronics which form an integral part of the printing behaviour and how it can be made reliable. The drive signal for print heads (i.e. waveform) are critical in determining this.

Achieving that reliability only creates value when the next steps in the process are optimised to produce the product required. Curing has been an integral part of this whilst UV inks have dominated the industrial inkjet market, but with more and more water-based processes this can be generalised to “drying”. The ink, and how it cures, dries, gels or freezes are key aspects of the overall process and ones that determines system design, cost and ultimately the feasibility.

Therefore, all the suppliers need to collaborate to get their customers to get to where they want to be.

TELL US MORE ABOUT YOUR SERVICES AND THE SPECIFIC MARKET IT SERVES.

DoDxAct provides advice, training and practical assistance into the research and industrial inkjet development activities of companies from small start-ups to large multi-nationals. Our expertise and knowledge of the market means we can supply impartial advice on technology, but what truly sets us apart is our practical knowledge and support. From introductory courses on inks and heads to detailed on-site instruction on waveform creation, training is a big part of our business. However, with the recent limitations in international travel it is our laboratory-based services that have been the focus, comprising two main activities: waveform development and print prototyping.

WHAT IS UNIQUE ABOUT THIS OFFERING? HOW WILL IT MAKE A DIFFERENCE FOR CUSTOMERS?

Let us take waveforms as a case in point. With so many possible combinations of ink, head and process needs (e.g. drop size and print height), it is not always clear who is responsible for developing the waveform. This is where we can help.

Perhaps the most obvious role is to help ink companies who want to demonstrate the performance of their product in a new head or specific application need. However, upstream of that, we can also test and advise on behalf of raw material suppliers on the jetability or printability influences, which is inherently reliant on customising a waveform to obtain demonstrative printing. Downstream of ink in the supply chain, we can support smaller OEMs who might not have the advanced jetting resources at their disposal that we do.

A lot of new inkjet developments have fairly niche requirements which do not motivate the component suppliers (head/ink/ink system/drying) to dedicate resources on the back of future sales alone. This is truly where an independent service provider can help. We collaborate with those suppliers to help grow their markets by increasing the success of their customers in the early stages.

HOW DO YOU SEE THE MARKET DEVELOPING IN THE NEXT SIX MONTHS, AND WHAT WILL BE YOUR FOCUS? 

We hope that the situation with travel can be managed so that clients can be supported on-site where it is needed. In the meantime, we will continue to maximise the time spent in our lab demonstrating the technology combinations that will help solve the challenges they have. Waveform development will continue to be a focus activity, and with more heads being released all the time, growing our relationships with industry-leading technology suppliers will continue to be crucial to get their customers to market in these challenging times.

You can find out more about the FuturePrint Virtual Summit here.

You can find out more about DoDxAct here.