Inkjet Technique
The inkjet technique continues to receive the most attention in YKI’s printing area, due to its enormous and still largely unrealised potential in commercial printing and the paramount importance of surface chemistry in steering the print result.
Projects in this area span from the analysis of liquid imbibition in uncoated and coated papers, such as the VINNOVA/Industry NextJet project with PhD projects at YKI and at Mid-Sweden University/Digital Printing Center, to less conventional applications in which functionalities other than visual communication are carried by the ink, such as the Codirect centre on new printable sensors and the iPack center on applications of conductive polymers in packaging. In summary, inkjet printing is used for conducting inks for printed electronics, new types of printable sensors, or barrier inks for protection of packaging contents.
Resources at YKI
We continue to use advanced combinations of experimental techniques to analyze with higher resolution and non-destructive through surface layers. YKI’s new confocal Raman instrument, which is combined with AFM and a high-resolution optical microscopy technique, is especially useful in paper coating and printing research.