Business Management - Industry Trends

Across the world, the giant chemical corporations have been rapidly strengthening their position as producers of the new materials at the heart of printed electronics, an industry set to be over $300 billion. BASF has licensed in know-how and invested in a new producer of organic photovoltaic devices while Sumitomo Chemical, Akzo Nobel and Henkel have made acquisitions of appropriate organic and inorganic material suppliers. Merck Chemical has funded major new university research in inorganic materials for printed electronics in Germany. Kodak, Honeywell and DuPont have announced new electronic display materials with Bayer also gearing up as a supplier. In Japan the filing of

Most have dubbed drupa 2008 the “ink-jet drupa,” and while many would agree that most new product releases and announcements have focused on ink jet applications, there are others. The pace of product introductions has slowed at drupa, and at other shows—but not because there is less innovation in our industry—because modern marketing won’t permit releases of new technology every four years, or even annually for that matter. Conversely, markets today require access to new products and innovations much quicker than in the past, so the days of “waiting” for drupa, PRINT, IPEX or IGAS are over. When a product is ready for market

Schreiner Group in Germany has made a great success of ac electroluminescent lighting and displays, screen printed with inorganic compounds. This Euro 100 million company with over 600 employees is now moving strongly into printed functional electronics, creating growth beyond its roots in static printing, traditional embossed seals, instruction booklets and labels. After all, printing electronics gives it the next generation of such things plus many new and exciting markets. The next steps were described by Christian Schreiner President of Schreiner VarioLight at the IDTechEx Printed Electronics Europe conference in Dresden as such things as printed antennas, sensors and heaters. Schreiner is also

I’VE LONG held the belief that print buyers send their print projects out to bid too frequently. A seasoned print buyer typically knows which of his or her suppliers is best for a particular job, so why do many buyers bid out each of their print projects to an average of three printers? Our team at Print Buyers Online.com decided to get to the bottom of this by reviewing data generated from our popular Quick Polls. Here is what we learned from the people who provided both qualitative and quantitative data in our popular surveys. Printers Lower Their Prices: In a Quick Poll

New opportunities for printing electronics include: polymer solar film (pictured left); flexible polymer-based lighting; electronic books printed polymer backplanes; transparent solar cells; flexible electronics and batteries; paper-like products; disposable diagnostic devices; intelligent packaging and large area electronics. That was the message of Fujifilm Dimatix at the world’s largest conference and exhibition on printed electronics in Dresden Germany in April. This was the Printed Electronics Europe event of IDTechEx. It will now be leapfrogged by the sister event Printed Electronics USA in San Jose, CA being even bigger. Chuck Griggs, VP Applications Engineering of Fujifilm Dimatix, Inc. saw the advantages of inkjet as non-contact and

“MAIL MOVES America and Printing Powers Prosperity.” This statement epitomizes NPES’ commitment to leadership in the mailing and fulfillment industry, where related companies and associations have formed a coalition to maintain the vitality of printed communication as a key structural component of the American economy. Initially, Mail Moves America was formed to counter so-called “Do-Not-Mail” legislation in various states, which attempts to curtail, if not eliminate, mail delivery of direct commercial communication. This remains the principal focus of the coalition in 2008, which has successfully opposed Do-Not-Mail efforts in a number of states so far this year. • The importance of Printed Communication and

One of the hottest topics in technology today is printed electronics. It is evolving so fast that the full variety of benefits arising has yet to become clear. Take invisible electronics where complete transparency, hiding from sight and possibly light bending may be involved. The world’s largest conference and exhibition on printed and potentially printed electronics - the IDTechEx “Printed Electronics Europe” event - took place on 8-9 April in Dresden, Germany, a centre of excellence for the subject. Here, local startup Novaled revealed record breaking performance of its light emitting inks and hosted visits to its superb new facility. One capability that was

A common theme in the IDTechEx conference Printed Electronics in Dresden this week was the shortage of creative product design. Those trying to replace displays on television sets and mobile phones are finding it a very expensive and unforgiving exercise as LCDs and other old technologies continue to improve. Ironically, it is being made tougher for new technologies such as OLEDs because the older technologies are being value engineered by introducing a measure of printing with electronic inks - the basis of the new electronics - with some now incorporated in the processes of both Plasma Display Panels PDP and LCD displays. For example,

The advantage of China solely as a low-cost, manufacturing-for-export market is dimin-ishing. Companies that integrate China into their global supply chains as a source of competitive advantage are far more successful than companies that pursue narrower objectives in China, finds a study jointly conducted by management consulting firm Booz Allen Hamilton and the American Chamber of Commerce in Shanghai (AmCham Shanghai). More specifically, companies that pursue China as both a growth market and a market for lower-cost labor and sources, and integrate these operationally, enjoy significantly higher profits than companies pursuing just one of those objectives. Companies that employ dual sourcing and sales

IDTechEx expect the spend on printed and thin film electronics beyond conventional silicon to be $1.58 Billion this year. The majority of this is for OLED display panels ($0.69 Billion) which is the value of the panel and not the final device. Virtually all of this is not printed and on glass. Second largest by value is photovoltaics (PV) beyond conventional crystalline and amorphous silicon, accounting for $0.4 Billion. This is not organic PV however, which is still some time away from commercialization, but inorganic technologies such as CIGS and CdTe devices. For example, First Solar has an order book exceeding $2 Billion