Four Views of Functional/Industrial Printing

In a short article describing what’s happening in the functional/industrial printing segment, a space so vast, diverse, and largely not on public display, it is like trying to describe the world’s cultures in a limerick. This article aims to check in with a handful of industry professionals on developments in the space they serve and to understand how they view its present and future.

A Changing Space

As an expert serving the functional/industrial printing segment, among other areas, Glenn Shull, consultant at GLM Technologies, says part of the beauty of the segment is its diversity. “When you talk about industrial, it can mean so many things.” He describes how each day can bring a different product to address with its own technology mix, including screen printing, pad printing, and digital printing. He says viewing the reach of industrial printing can be as simple as going to any retail store and seeing numerous applications to brand or decorate consumer products.

Dimensional badges, like the one shown here, are the critical branding element on many manufactured machines. | Credit: Wide-format Impressions

Shull says product identification is the most significant growth area he sees today in the industrial space. As new products are developed, he sees less use of metal and riveted nameplates and a more decisive move into printed, durable decals. For instance, in an industrial air conditioner, he says, nearly every internal and external component has some printing on it to brand, identify, or share critical information.
Screen printing, Shull says, continues to hold a strong place in the industrial segment, particularly for durable products, where the legibility of the printed surface, even amid extreme environmental conditions, may need to span decades. Pad printing is also widely used, particularly in marking three-dimensional objects. That said, he sees increasing use of digital printing in the production of labels, particularly for applications where long-term, high-performance durability is less of a concern.

Looking toward the future, Shull sees process choice as being guided by performance. On top of the already-mentioned need for durability, he mentions the printed electronics space, where digital printing could open new opportunities and models. The thickness of inkjet deposition differs from where it needs to be, so screen printing is still the process of choice. He says he has seen some recent examples of digital systems that can handle “super high-viscosity” solutions that may be a harbinger of change, however.

One of the areas Shull is most fascinated by is the printing of electronics onto fabrics. He mentions using electronics in mattress covers that can be utilized in healthcare facilities to monitor specific patient data. He believes that as electronics become increasingly commonplace in everyday items like clothing or bedding, what industrial printing “is” may expand and become more challenging to describe.

The Same, Only Different

“For Texas Nameplate,” says Dan Crownover, company president, “industrial printing is printing on substrates that can go out in any environment and last.” His company, located outside of Dallas, primarily focuses on industrial nameplates, the small metal plates one might see on an engine or other machinery.

He says one key factor that makes Texas Nameplate, and the industrial spaces it serves, different is the need for durability. “There is not a paint or ink that will last 100 years,” he says, “so we do chemical etching, then will paint-fill it or ink-fill it.”

In addition to the nameplates the company produces, Crownover says the company also does large control panels that utilize either etching or printing, as well as safety signs and “a fair amount of decals.”

Items like this radiator cap decal require high durability from heat, the elements, oil, and grime.

The company, he says, does a lot of painting, screen printing, and some digital printing. While the company’s screen printing process has changed little, he reports some process changes down-line. In the summer of 2022, the company installed its first UV curing line — using low-power LED-UV — substituting a twenty-minute high-heat baking process for instant curing. This change has resulted in the use of less ink and power and the ability to move the product immediately into finishing.

While the change to LED-UV helps make the process faster and less complicated, getting it in place took planning and commitment. He says the company worked with its ink supplier to realize the concept. “They came here probably 12 times to help figure it out — there was no recipe,” he says.

Asked if the company is considering new technologies as it moves forward, Crownover says, “We’re always looking for new things.” He says the company took a considerable risk on UV curing and is glad they did. He expects the company will buy a new digital printing unit “soon,” particularly for printing onto flexible substrates and polycarbonate — but not for metal, which requires coating.

For the time being, Texas Nameplate will focus on its core competencies. “We believe we’re really good at making metal nameplates,” he says, “and we continue to be the best supplier of them in the U.S.” While most of its competitors got heavily into decals and labels, he says the company has remained steadfast. “Things do change,” he adds, “but right now we’re really focused [on nameplates].

Fixing and Facilitating Processes

To discuss what’s growing in the industrial printing space, Ray Greenwood, process improvement consultant at HPCI, Hazardous Print Consulting Inc., says there are two sides to that coin. First, he says that for purely industrial work, such as “white goods” like washers and dryers, business is directly tied to demand for those products. The area he sees as growing strongly is printed electronics and medical devices, such as sensors.

He says that much of the printed electronics work in the United States is primarily for prototyping and first-to-market production. A majority of the high-volume work is done overseas, particularly in China. Greenwood sees some level of interest by product manufacturers in moving some of that work back to the U.S.

Greenwood says much of his work centers around helping functional/industrial producers address product challenges. The root causes of these challenges can be either in ink, substrate, or the product being manufactured. He is also called in to help with research and development efforts, to help bring ideas to fruition. He says challenges often stem from ink rheology, substrate choice, methodologies, and even choosing which printing or imaging process is the best fit for the task at hand.

Like other companies in the printing industry, Greenwood says industrial print producers are looking toward process automation. Companies working at the “upper end” of the space always have automation in mind, particularly those in printed electronics, “where they don’t want people touching it.” Further, he says he has heard of increased interest by producers for equipment that includes camera systems often used for quality control to add greater certainty to production. Also, and more practically, he says producers are trying to cut down on scrap and are challenged to find and train good employees.

Asked about the presence of, or growing influence of, digital printing technologies for industrial print production, Greenwood says it has been used in some areas for quite some time. It all depends on the needs of the end product. For instance, digital printing has become common in the production of overlays, which are the graphic, outward-facing surfaces of a control panel. In some cases, such as for specialized medical equipment, digital is a better fit given the small quantities produced. He says digital printing is also commonly used to image lot numbers, bar codes, and information on medical component packaging.

Growing Digital Opportunities

The possibilities for using digital printing for industrial applications are growing, says Craig Reid, founder and president of CTR Resources. “There’s probably a better awareness that it is possible,” he says. “They’re saying, ‘I’m decorating things this way today, and there’s got to be a better way.’” He adds that people are now willing to look at the segment and make changes for industrial products and packaging. “Before,” he says, “they never dreamed of it.”

Reid says early-adoption companies, for instance, have moved into steel decoration. He has witnessed the use of inkjet on 60" rolls of metal — “digital painting” is the term of art — to produce products such as garage doors. “What’s changing,” he adds, “is that people are seeing success out there and then applying that to their specific applications.”

Metal decorating looms large in the markets for which he can see a direct path to growth. Products can include packaging, such as the printing of tins, and building products, such as cladding for building exteriors, which may have higher expected durability than vinyl. He also provides the example of metal hunting sheds that are printed, upon order, with camouflage matching the geographic environment within which it will be used. This approach, called late-stage decoration, can allow for new models, short runs, and zero-inventory manufacturing. Challenges in new spaces include ink adhesion to the diverse substrates and print durability.

So, then, with the availability of digital printing segments that fulfill the needs of the industrial sector, why are they less widely used? What are the barriers? Reid says there are insufficient quality integrators in the U.S. “There are some good people doing incredible work, but they don’t have tons of money to do it.” He believes significant steps can be made with “universal modules,” a modular approach within which set modules can be assembled to meet unique needs.

In addition to printing challenges, substrate handling, particularly for substrates that are exceptionally heavy or complex in shape, needs to be addressed. He adds that chemistry-wise, the challenges in pairing ink with substrates have been solved for “90% of products.” Successful solutions (both chemically and conceptually) are “out there — they just need to be assembled.”