R&D Drivers
Citing pressing demand for greater digitization, sustainability, productivity and automation, Paul Ewing, in writing Smithers’ new report, 10-Year Forecast of Disruptive Technologies in Print, claims “Innovation will be essential to the ongoing evolution of the print segment.” He credits innovation with driving R&D to meet expectations.
Ewing, a digital print expert, has authored several reports for Smithers, including The Future of Digital vs. Offset Printing to 2024, and Impact of Changing Run Lengths on the Printing Market. He contends, “Much of the landscape has been fundamentally reshaped by COVID-19 with the emergence of new business and buying models, coupled to a decline in many traditional media segments.”
In this latest in-depth technical investigation, Smithers assesses the market potential for disruptive innovations, ranging from direct innovation fitted to print equipment, through to the integration of broader technology and Industry 4.0 concepts in the print industry through 2031.
Trends identified are sub-divided into nine topics:
- Print process innovation will include the deployment of new high-viscosity inkjet systems, allowing new substrates to be printed. Expect wider use of inkjet in direct-to-pack and direct-to-object applications
- Higher-speed electrophotography (toner) print will be enabled by the commercialization of HP’s LEPx technology
- Greater automation will bring new efficiencies to flexographic presses
- In market applications, the main drive will be to develop digital systems to print on packaging substrates—corrugated board, folding cartons, and flexible plastics—as well as integrated digital finishing
- From a materials and chemistry perspective, presses will need to handle and print at high quality on a new generation of flexible paper, biopolymer and mono-material plastic stocks. For consumables, ink makers are changing formulations to develop inks sets that incorporate more natural, sustainable ingredients
- In terms of workflow innovation, the main opportunities will come from wider automation, and digitization of commercial and packaging print workflows. This will leverage innovations in robotic handling and the installation of the first generation of cooperative worker-robotic systems, or “cobots”
- A parallel development will see print-specific artificial intelligence (AI) software deployed in press design, prepress and finishing
- Increased digitization of print will be enhanced at the same time by wider roll-out of 5G connectivity, and by the end of the decade 6G telephony networks. Other advances that could be leveraged include commercial accessibility to quantum computing power via the cloud
- Augmented reality (AR) platforms will be harnessed, for both B2B and B2C interactions. This includes better and more sensitive technical and service support from OEMs, and new value-adding print options for consumers