Functional printing and new high added-value products
The invention of the movable modern printer by Johannes Gutenberg in 1440 was a first revolution at the European level for the democratisation of information. Since then until today, printing technologies have made a great evolution and now printed products surround us in our daily life: newspaper, books, magazines, decor paper, packages or labels, among others, are a clear example of it.
Currently, the Printing Industry is a mature sector and, however, in the last decade it is experiencing a second revolution. On the one hand, digital printing technologies with inkjet technology at the forefront, are achieving to print in a personalised way and on-demand on any industrial substrate: glass, ceramic, textile, plastic, wood, etc.; allowing the development of new products hitherto unthinkable.
On the other hand, the great progress on the chemistry of materials, developing smart materials in the form of fluid, has positioned printing technologies as the most appropriate techniques for deposition of functional materials selectively on a substrate versus other deposition techniques such as CVD (Chemical Vapor Deposition), much more expensive and with much slower production times. In this way, Functional Printing is adding value to conventional printed products, with new functionalities such as smart packages and labels, which could monitor the packaged product or implement anti-counterfeiting and anti-fraud solutions, among other possibilities.
Moreover, one of the branches of Functional Printing, printed electronics, will develop new flexible electronics components such as OPV solar cells, OLED light-emitting devices, printed batteries, flexible screens or RFID antenna, as an example of the many developments in organic electronics which will be able to print in whole or in a part during the next years.