Guy Newcombe, CEO at Archipelago Technology, an inkjet technology developer based in Cambridge - the current inkjet hotbed within the UK - explores the next big things that will shape the future of inkjet technology over the next two decades. Newcombe examines, which Megatrends will drive government action and investment, and what role Archipelago and their Powerdrop Technology will play. Powerdrop, is an inkjet system that can dispense viscous liquids as droplets with precision and consistency. 

But firstly, lets take a closer look at what a Megatrend is. Simply put, a Megatrend is a continuing, irreversible transformation that will disrupt the industry and ultimately lead to innovation. Governments and industry usually respond to these trends through policies and funding. Archipelago believes that the Megatrends currently shaping the inkjet technology industry right now are: 

The need to reduce CO2 emissions.

Climate change is a huge topic and the pressure on businesses to explore sustainability is ever increasing. A growing number of companies in the inkjet technology industry have committed to reducing net carbon emissions already. 

The need to shorten and secure supply chains.  

Supply lines need to be more controllable and certain. Drivers and trends for sustainability are changing, with consumers demanding more sustainable products and businesses with whom they prefer to do business with, forcing companies within the inkjet industry to rethink their strategies. 

The drive to use waste as a raw material.

There is a huge drive to reduce waste worldwide. The inkjet technology industry is ahead of the game already when it comes to waste, with Inkjet printers using less energy and producing much less waste, resulting in a more environmentally friendly technology. 

So, how does this all fit in with the Archipelago technology? Archipelago is not your typical inkjet technology company. The general trend over the last decade within the industry was to produce printheads capable of jetting very small droplets onto a wide variety of substrates. The issue with small nozzles, as we all know, is the inability to jet highly viscous substances, such as glue for example. Enter Archipelago’s Powerdrop technology with its larger nozzles, short fluid paths and higher jetting energy.

Archipelago’s Powerdrop technology is highly versatile and currently, the three main areas of focus for sustainability are within industrial coatings, packaging and agriculture.

The conventional coating methods within the industrial coatings industry create a large amount of waste, making Powerdrop with its ability to jet glue as well as paint, the ideal technology. Powerdrop eliminates waste and reduces CO2 due to its jetting effectiveness.

The packaging industry is a one trillion-dollar industry, and currently the aim is to replace ca. 10% of all plastic with paper. Archipelago’s Powerdrop can coat paper to provide barrier properties, so allowing paper to replace  plastic for some packaging applications, while still enabling the paper  to be recycled after use.

The agricultural industry is currently also seeing a huge shift, with a huge drive within Europe to use chemicals more wisely and release less nitrogen into the waterways. Again, Archipelago technology can be the more environmentally friendly solution here, as it creates targeted crop treatments , avoiding excess chemicals entering the groundwater. Interestingly, the coating weight of 20gr/m2 when printing a poster is virtually the same as when spraying fertilizer or weed killer onto a cereals field!.

Guy Newcombe comments, “There are huge opportunities within these three areas. For example, we are looking to sell around 100,000 Powerdrop machines a year into the agricultural sector alone, making it one hundred times bigger than the ceramics industry!” Newcombe adds, “I want to emphasize here that these are not just opportunities for us, but for the whole industry.”

Newcombe believes that these trends and opportunities will continue to shape and mould the ink jet industry as a whole over the next two decades and that it will become essential for companies to innovate and become much more environmentally friendly as we strive to help slow down climate change.

Find out more about Archipelago Technology here.