Printed electronic ink market status and development forecast

Main application market for conductive inks

Flexible printed electronics has a very broad application market. Mr. Allen Reid, Commercial Director of NANGAP, pointed out that the use of nano-silver fiber conductive inks for printing on transparent conductive films and making touch panels will be a key application market. In the short term, photovoltaic products, LEDs and RFID are all potential markets for printed electronics; in the long run, printed electronics will penetrate into the display, touch screen and medical industries, especially in the display industry, which will have unlimited development prospects. .

“In the past few years, the proportion of customers using transparent conductive inks and other display-related technologies is growing,” said Stan Farnsworth, vice president of marketing at NovaCentrix. “These customers are both in terms of material innovation and processing. Find ways to seize development opportunities."

Mr. Steve Toyama of Engineered Conductive Materials (ECM) said: "Computer input devices, medical devices, biosensors, solar panels, heaters, ESD coatings on textile surfaces, and ACF adhesives are all related to printed electronics. It is growing. Among them, except for ACF adhesives, which are still in the testing stage, all the other products have been put into actual production."

Mr. Matt Ganslaw, Vice President of Sales of Creative Materials, added: "The application of printed electronics in medical sensors is in the experimental development stage, and the growth of flexible LEDs and illuminated touch screen busbars is also relatively rapid. In addition, printed electronics are in print storage. The field of equipment also has great potential for development."

In addition, other applications for printed electronics include interactive panels such as traditional membrane switches and next-generation touch technologies. More emerging markets include printed antennas and wearable electronic devices. Steven Willoughby, DuPont Microcircuit Materials Marketing Manager, said: "We look forward to new markets emerging to realize the dream of 'everywhere is electronics.'"

Terry Kaiserman, founder and chief technology officer of T+ink, cites: "T+ink's T+Mold products are mainly used in the automotive, aerospace and white goods industries. We usually use resins with higher glass transition temperatures. Polymers are used as raw materials.” For the textile market, such as heaters, sensors and switches for woven and non-woven products, T+ink products are required to have washability; for the packaging market, T+ink The products commonly used for printing are paper, cardboard, and soft plastics such as HDPE, LDPE, and PVC, as well as rigid plastics used to make blister packs.

Future development prospects

As more and more end users begin to use print electronics for trial production or formal production, ink suppliers are full of confidence in the development prospects of flexible printed electronics.

Mr. Stan Farnsworth, Vice President of Marketing at NovaCentrix, said: “I hope this trend will continue to grow and I expect more pioneers to join this market. More organizations are involved in the development of printed electronics related technologies and products. More importantly, There are more end users putting these products into actual production. This is what we saw at NovaCentrix, and the judgment I got through seminars and media reports, and also the common experience of many companies in the printed electronics market."

“The market for printed electronics is bright,” said Roy Bjorlin, Global Commercial Director of Solar Chemicals. “For Sun Chemistry, a series of important application areas will bring new development opportunities to our company. Our research team is focused on developing new materials to meet the needs of emerging emerging markets."

Mr. Kody Osato, Marketing Manager of Advanced Materials, Toyo Ink International Group, said: "For any market, small batches and multiple types of electronic equipment will become the future development trend, and the simple printing process combined with conductive ink will be the manufacturing process. Expanded to a global scale."

Mr. Matt Ganslaw, vice president of sales at Creative Materials, believes that printed electronics will take a solid step in commercialization in the next 5-10 years and will become an important industry.

Mr. Ian Clark, Director of Sales and Marketing at Intrinsiq Materials, said: “We are optimistic about the future of the printed electronics industry. In the future, we will combine ink production technology with our customers' next-generation equipment manufacturing technology to maintain Long-term relationships with major customers and help our company win more new customers."

Engineered Conductive Materials (ECM) has developed a new range of market segments with sufficient confidence to achieve good results in 2014 and in the future, and has always maintained optimistic profits. Moreover, the profitability of new products tends to be higher, so the company will focus on the new application market.

We believe that with the emergence of new application markets and the maturity of new technologies, the future growth potential of the printed electronics market is very large.