Current Status and Future Potential of Inkjet Print in Pharmaceutical and Medical Packaging.

Peter Addington

Xennia Technology Ltd
Monroe House, Works Road, Letchworth, Hertfordshire, SG6 1LN U.K.
Tel: +44 (0) 1462 705220    Fax: +44 (0) 1462 705221

Biography

Having graduated in Food Technology in 1969, Peter recognised the error of his ways and moved into packaging a year later. In 1977 he became Packaging Development Manager at Schweppes and this was followed by two years as Projects Director, Schweppes France, before moving to Express Foods as Group Packaging Adviser in 1985. In 1988 he moved into consultancy, founded his own consultancy two years later specialising in all aspects of packaging and became a Fellow of the U.K. Institute of Packaging in 1992. Peter’s introduction to digital print came in  January 2004 when he joined Xaar plc, a company  involved in the design and manufacture of  inkjet print heads, to identify and develop opportunities within the packaging arena and in January this year joined Xennia Technology Ltd. to further develop the interest in inkjet technology within the packaging arena.

Company Profile

Xennia Technology was created in 1996 as an inkjet research and development company. It operates as an integrator to produce both equipment and suitable fluids for many applications including the digital printing of labels, packaging, textiles, and ceramic tiles.
It is 75% owned by Dutch material science company, Royal TenCate who took the stake in January 2008 in order to develop inkjet technology for specialist textiles applications. The other shares are owned by the management and by Xaar plc.
The majority of the projects currently underway utilise the Xaar 1001, which was launched in 2007, and has been specifically designed for single-pass production-line printing.

Abstract

This paper will briefly review technologies within the digital print area and then bring attendees up to date by building on the introduction given at last year’s conference on the digital printing of packaging with particular reference to applications within medical and pharmaceutical packaging

The use of digital print in the packaging arena is accelerating and over the next five years we will see a significant move to the on-line digital printing of packaging. This was demonstrated at last year’s Drupa print exhibition where the amount of digital printing equipment emphasized that the technology has finally come of age.

PIRA (UK packaging research body) predicts that the growth in digital print will, at 23% CAGR, be significantly greater than other print processes over the coming years and this will be due to increasing demands for shorter print runs, pack customisation and cost reduction. The current economic climate may well contribute to increased demand for digital print as print buyers seek both shorter runs and flexibility in print production.

The early reluctance to introduce digital print on to production lines which centred on concerns about print quality and system reliability, is rapidly disappearing with improvements in the basic technology and the development of new drop-on-demand inkjet print-head designs such as the Xaar 1001

The presentation will up-date delegates on industry developments and will highlight applications such as label, blister, cap and case printing which are of direct interest to the medical and pharmaceutical industries.