Future Links March 10th
Today our news roundup from the printing industry covers 3D printed parts for water desalination, Ikonprint’s installation of the first Nilpeter press in Denmark, new seaweed-based packaging material, BMW’s vision of a 4D printed car, Erhardt and Leimer’s plans for drupa 2016, BASF’s new conductive inks and new on the drupa blog: drupa celebrates 65 years – back to the future of print.
3D printed parts aid in water desalination
There is hardly a field in which 3D printing is not making a difference. The products range from nice-to-have, such as 3D printed food, to potentially life-saving, such as 3D printed medical implants. Now, another important field is embracing the technology: Conwed, a company headquartered in Minneapolis, provides necessary components to the water filtration and reverse osmosis industry. They are also known as pioneers in the use of 3D printing for items like their feed spacers.
More at 3D Print
Label-maker installs first Nilpeter press in Denmark
The Danish label-maker Ikonprint is the first Danish printer to buy and install the new Nilpeter digital UV-InkJet product line, Panorama. The move is a direct result of an increased number of incoming orders, and thus an urgent need to expand production capacity. The first two orders produced on the Nilpeter press were around 500,000 wristbands for Bakken Amusement Park and the labels for Braunstein’s organic Easter beer. The Panorama comes as a stand-alone digital press and as a combined digital press and converting solution.
More at Printing News
New seaweed-based material could replace plastic packaging
The search for eco-friendly alternatives to plastic packaging is on. The newest addition to the line-up is a product is derived from agar, a gelatinous material that can be readily found in red marine algae. The Japanese design firm Amam that developed the product is one of the finalists for the 2016 Lexus Design Award.
More at Good
BMW envisions 4D printed futuristic car
Granted, this is a vision that may be a long way off from becoming a reality but it is so interesting that it is worth sharing. The automaker BMW has developed a 4D printed concept car called the Vision Next 100 that would be working without further assembly right off the printbed. 4D printing produces objects that change with time. In the case of the Vision Next 100, BMW imagines the outer shell to transform shape with airflow and wheel arches that flex with steering movement.
More at 3D Printing Industry
Erhardt and Leimer presents print image monitoring system at drupa
Erhardt and Leimer, a global vendor of automation and inspection technology, presents its latest products for the print industry at drupa. E+L’s new print image monitoring system ELSCAN OMS6 will be shown for the first time at drupa. It contains two 12 megapixel cameras, which ensures exceptional image quality in Ultra-HD with perfect color reproduction and without apparent distortion in the edges of the image.
More at Packaging Europe
BASF introduces new conductive inks
BASF said that printed electronic circuits would become more efficient in future thanks to its new semiconductor inks. Researchers at BASF have succeeded in improving the composition of the individual semiconductor ink components to double the mobility of the charge carriers in the printed circuits. This allows to further reduce the structures in size and to produce high resolution LCD or OLED screens on plastic substrates.
More at Printed Electronics World
New on the drupa blog: Back to the future of print
Flying cars and hoverboards? Many of the unlikely predictions for the year 2015, made in the 1989 blockbuster movie Back to the Future II, proved incorrect. But it got at least one thing right: people are, indeed, still reading printed newspapers as we are about to celebrate 65 years of drupa. Gearing up towards this 16th edition, we invite you to get in that imaginary modified DeLorean – and go way back to the future of print.
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