An extensive report ‘Decorative Inkjet’ has been launched and made available written by Richard Darling and with contributions from Carsten Brinkmeyer of Hymmen. To download your free copy of the report then download here.

The report addresses the economic reality of inkjet in particular compared with rotogravure for inkjet printing of papers in the wood decoration sector. This, Richard Darling of Ricoh believes is essential in order to succeed at gaining acceptance by the major manufacturers in this area.

For any new technology, in order for it to be accepted by the mainstream industry, once the technical challenges have been broadly overcome, a strong and clear case for adoption from an economic perspective must be successfully made. Only then will the technology move beyond early market interest into true early market adoption and development. Whether or not this new technology, in this case, inkjet, eventually becomes the dominant technology is debatable, but the technical barriers are being removed and now the remaining challenge is more of a cultural and commercial one. Inkjet has improved in its reliability, quality and durability and we believe the latest innovation, Saturn, solves the right production problems and offers significant economic possibilities to production companies. This article contains some insight drawn from a compressive paper written by Richard Darling of Ricoh which clearly outlines the value of Saturn, how it compares to Rotogravure from an economic perspective and our thoughts on the future of inkjet and décor.

The wood décor industry is mature.  It has established, strong, centralised print vendors and third-party operators. The sector is consolidated and only a few companies produce and supply the many who use décor paper in a traditional model.  These vendors have built their operations and invested in rotogravure capacity in multiple lines at each of their centres.  Any change could be a major disturbance introducing risks of market share, amortisation and ‘breakeven’.  But change has begun and is accelerating, including new single-pass print equipment launching at a new capital price-point, with keen running cost and a less strenuous running speed. All of which are set to the needs of an individual board producer. 

This raises the question. Who should do the printing and where? 

To read the report in full, download a copy here.