Fujifilm announces joint development with Barberán to bring high quality, single pass inkjet to the global sign and display market
Fujifilm Imaging Colorants, an experienced inkjet ink technology partner to equipment manufacturers, integrators and ink formulators, today announced that it will invest US$ 28 million to add a new facility in New Castle, Delaware for the production of aqueous inkjet dispersions. The investment will double Fujifilm’s production capacity of pigment dispersions in the US to cater to the fast-growing demand for inkjet printing globally.
Construction of the new facility, which adds 11,000 square feet of plant to the Delaware site, began in March 2022 and is expected to be operational by summer 2023. To support the increase in manufacturing output across the site, Fujifilm Imaging Colorants is adding 30 positions in quality, engineering, production, and administrative roles by the end of 2023.
Fujifilm’s high purity R&D pigment dispersion products are important to the development of aqueous inkjet inks for a variety of fast-growing inkjet markets, including packaging, textile and commercial printing. They use a proprietary cross-linking technology to lock each pigment particle in a secure polymer cage, resulting in a highly stable dispersion that enables the design of ink formulations that can meet demanding performance requirements. Fujifilm supplies aqueous inks to digital printer OEMs (Original Equipment Manufacturers) and R&D pigment dispersions to ink formulators.
Ian Wilkinson, president and chief operating officer, Fujifilm Imaging Colorants, comments, “We believe that developments in aqueous ink technology will contribute to the transformation of new markets for inkjet. With this investment, we are further strengthening our position as a major manufacturer of both aqueous ink and core pigment dispersion technologies. Our mission is to ensure that we can support our growing North America and global customer base, to contribute to their success in inkjet.”
Last year, Fujifilm announced the construction of its first dispersion manufacturing facility in the US, which is on schedule to be commissioned by spring 2022, to supplement its existing Europe-based production. The second facility brings Fujifilm’s total investment to more than US$ 47 million in new production capacity at the Delaware site.
2023 promises an interesting ride for print in India
Indian Printer and Publisher founded in 1979 is the oldest B2B trade publication in the multi-platform and
multi-channel IPPGroup. While the print and packaging industries have been resilient in the past 33 months since the pandemic lockdown of 25 March 2020, the commercial printing and newspaper industries have yet to recover their pre-Covid trajectory.
The fragmented commercial printing industry faces substantial challenges as does the newspaper industry.
While digital short-run printing and the signage industry seem to be recovering a bit faster, ultimately
their growth will also be moderated by the progress of the overall economy. On the other hand book
printing exports are doing well but they too face several supply-chain and logistics challenges.
The price of publication papers including newsprint has been high in the past year while availability is diminished by several mills shutting down their publication paper and newsprint machines in the past four years. Indian paper mills are also exporting many types of paper and have raised prices for Indian printers. To some extent, this has helped in the recovery of the digital printing industry with its on-demand short-run and low-wastage paradigm.
Ultimately digital print and other digital channels will help print grow in a country where we are still far behind in our paper and print consumption and where digital is a leapfrog technology that will only increase the demand for print in the foreseeable future. For instance, there is no alternative to a rise in textbook consumption but this segment will only reach normality in the next financial year beginning on 1 April 2023.
Thus while the new normal is a moving target and many commercial printers look to diversification, we believe that our target audiences may shift and change. Like them, we will also have to adapt with agility to keep up with their business and technical information needs.
Our 2023 media kit is ready, and it is the right time to take stock and reconnect with your potential markets and customers. Print is the glue for the growth of liberal education, new industry, and an emerging economy. We seek your participation in what promises to be an interesting ride.
