Analysis of Linoprint distribution channels, development of marketing concepts and tools

PFC del programa Erasmus EPS elaborat a Fachhochschule Kiel University of Applied SciencesTreball desenvolupat dins el marc del programa 'European Project Semester'.The objective of this report is to analyze the effectiveness of current Linoprint distributors and potential new distributors, to analyze Linoprint’s company strengths compared to its competitors in the digital printing market, to develop Microsoft Excel based marketing tools, and to propose marketing concepts to Linoprint by analyzing Linoprint’s current marketing material and the package printing industry, which is the market that Linoprint is active in. The results of the project are used to develop tools and recommendations to improve Linoprint’s marketing and current company positioning, and to recommend strategies for Linoprint to consider as it enters the market

Pushing the Limits of 3D Color Printing: Error Diffusion with Translucent Materials

Accurate color reproduction is important in many applications of 3D printing, from design prototypes to 3D color copies or portraits. Although full color is available via other technologies, multi-jet printers have greater potential for graphical 3D printing, in terms of reproducing complex appearance properties. However, to date these printers cannot produce full color, and doing so poses substantial technical challenges, from the shear amount of data to the translucency of the available color materials. In this paper, we propose an error diffusion halftoning approach to achieve full color with multi-jet printers, which operates on multiple isosurfaces or layers within the object. We propose a novel traversal algorithm for voxel surfaces, which allows the transfer of existing error diffusion algorithms from 2D printing. The resulting prints faithfully reproduce colors, color gradients and fine-scale details.Comment: 15 pages, 14 figures; includes supplemental figure

Color in computing

Color in the computing environment, once considered a luxury, is becoming more available compared to being just the occasional exception. As the number of users exploring the uses of color through displayed and printed images increases, the problems associated with its use are becoming widely known. What worked in black and white is not easily translated into color. The use of color needs to begin with the basic understanding of what is color, its terminology and its utilization as an enhancement to communications tool. Only after the basic terminology and effective means of communication are understood will color flourish as a successful means of communication in the computing environment. Currently, a number of products are seen as solutions in the realm of color usage in the computing environment. Four different contributions, PostScript Level 2 (Adobe), PhotoYCC(Eastman Kodak), Pantone Matching System (Pantone), and TekHVC (Tektronix), each deliver a component of electronic color reproduction. PostScript Level 2 delivers consistent color from monitor to printer, with variations based on printer manufacture and the printing technology utilized. PhotoYCC defines a format for image capture and retrieval with a wealth of possibilities for image sources. Pantone Matching System expands the accessibility of simulated prepress work, coupled with ink formulation and quality control. Tektronix attempted to define TekHVC as an industry standard based on a more uniform color space than that which is defined by previous industry standards. Because of the lack of acceptance, Tektronix has limited this solution to their printers. Solutions are abundant, but as costs continue to fall, the expectation of consistent color will rise. The adoption of standards across operating environments and software packages is critical to continued increase of the use of color in the computing environment

inkjet sensors produced by consumer printers with smartphone impedance readout

Abstract Inkjet printing technology is showing a disruptive potential for low-cost optical and electrochemical biosensors fabrication. This technology is becoming affordable for every laboratory, potentially allowing every research group to implement a biosensors fabrication platform with consumer inkjet printers, commercially available inks and smartphones for readout. In the present work we developed an example of such platform testing several inks, printers, and substrates. We defined and optimized the protocols assessing the printing limits and the fabricated biosensors electrochemical properties in standard solutions. Our platform has a total cost of less than 450 Euro and a single sensor fabrication cost of 0.026 Euro. Finally, we tested the sensitivity of smartphone-performed impedance measurements with printed biosensors surface coverage by Self Assembling Monolayers (SAM), validating them with standard instruments

Soft Inkjet Circuits: Rapid Multi-Material Fabrication of Soft Circuits using a Commodity Inkjet Printer

Despite the increasing popularity of soft interactive devices, their fabrication remains complex and time consuming. We contribute a process for rapid do-it-yourself fabrication of soft circuits using a conventional desktop inkjet printer. It supports inkjet printing of circuits that are stretchable, ultrathin, high resolution, and integrated with a wide variety of materials used for prototyping. We introduce multi-ink functional printing on a desktop printer for realizing multi-material devices, including conductive and isolating inks. We further present DIY techniques to enhance compatibility between inks and substrates and the circuits' elasticity. This enables circuits on a wide set of materials including temporary tattoo paper, textiles, and thermoplastic. Four application cases demonstrate versatile uses for realizing stretchable devices, e-textiles, body-based and re-shapeable interfaces

New method for comparing colour gamuts among printing technologies

The authors have developed a simple method to compare the colour gamuts of different industries (printing, textiles, plastics, etc.) based on representing the reproduced colours in constant lightness L* and hue hab* planes. This method allows the analysis of those aspects related to the comparison between the colour gamuts of different industries and the MacAdam and Pointer limits and also of those aspects related to how the colour solid is filled, whether homogeneously or leaving certain unfilled regions for commercial or design reasons. In particular, the authors have compared the colour gamuts of three printing technologies (electrophotography or laser, inkjet and offset) with the same class of paper and characterisation chart, and in this comparison the laser printer has proved to be the best of three printing devices. On the other hand, the authors have checked that gravure technology is better than the other ones due to the substrate nature used at gravure technology.This research was supported by the Ministerio de Educación y Ciencia (Spain) under grant no. DPI2005-08999-C02-02, and by the Conselleria d’Empresa, Universitat i Ciència of the Generalitat Valenciana (Spain) under grant no. IIARC0/2004/59

Gloss Dynamics of Inkjet Printers

Inkjet printing is a popular non-impact technology with widespread use in home and office applications. The basic principle involves propelling ink drops of different colors on a substrate. High quality images, near photographic quality, are now possible. The gloss of the printed substrate is an important quality attribute. Printed gloss depends on a number of characteristics of the media and the ink, but a good fundamental understanding is not available in the literature. The dependence of the gloss on the media and ink characteristics is reported in this work. The experimental results are compared with values predicted by a mathematical model. The dynamic post-printing gloss was studied with a specially constructed apparatus, which measured the laser reflectance of the printed surface within 40 ms after drop impact. Both pigmented and dye-based inks are used with rapidly absorbing porous media and swelling polymer-coated media. Various properties of the media such as surface roughness, ink absorption rates, pore size distribution, oil absorption capacity, wettability, and gloss were characterized along with ink properties like surface tension, viscosity, and filtercake resistance or the filtercake forming ability of the pigmented inks. The model and experimental results show that the gloss of dye-based inks on porous media depends on the media roughness. Gloss on swellable media depends on the roughness of the wet swollen polymer coating. The gloss of pigmented inks on porous media is determined by the ink pigment size and the dry media gloss. The gloss on swellable media is determined by ink pigment size and the wet roughness. The model predictions compare well to experiments for a wide range of parameters

Printed electronics for ubiquitous computing applications

Dissertação para obtenção do Grau de Doutor em QuímicaThis Ph.D. project is focused on the synthesis of functional inorganic materials, their formulation into inks and their deposition using inkjet printing on non-conventional substrates, such as paper, with the ultimate goal of advancing the state-of-the-art in the area of printed electrochromic displays. Other materials, inks,techniques and substrates were also explored. The first step in building a printed electrochromic display is to synthesize the functional materials necessary for the different layers of the device; this part of the work focused on inorganic electrochromic materials (tungsten oxide and vanadium oxide) and on transparent conductive oxides (TCO). ATO(antimony tin oxide) was synthesized using the Pechini method and the results obtained were promising. Tungsten oxide and vanadium oxide nanoparticles were also synthesized via a sol-gel route. FTIR,Raman and X-ray diffraction spectroscopic measurements showed that tungsten oxide nanoparticles synthesized via sol-gel are mainly in an amorphous state, with hexagonal crystalline domains, and allowed the analysis of the hydration extent of those nanoparticles. Vanadium oxide gel synthesized in this work is similar to those previously described in the literature, consisting of V2O5.6H2O, with microstructures similar to orthorhombic V2O5, while Raman spectroscopy also showed the presence of amorphous domains. The nanoparticle sizes were measured combining Dynamic Light Scattering, sedimentation and microscopic techniques (AFM and TEM). Tungsten oxide particles presented an average nanoparticle size between 160 and 200 nm, and vanadium oxide of 60 nm. The nanoparticles were used to produce ink formulations for application in inkjet printing. In addition to tungsten oxide and vanadium oxide, other electrochromic materials were printed. This part of the work examined the possibility of inkjet printing several organic (poly(thiophene)s) and inorganic electrochromic materials (metal oxides and metal hexacyanometallates) and also evaluated the performance of the resulting electrochromic devices. Poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene)poly(styrenesulfonate), poly(3-hexylthiophene), tungsten oxide, vanadium oxide and Prussian blue were inkjet printed on flexible substrates, such as plastic and paper. Solid-state electrochromic devices were assembled at room temperature on plastic and on paper substrates, without sintering the printed films, showing, in some cases, excellent contrast between the on and off state. The tungsten oxide and vanadium oxide devices were then tested through spectroelectrochemistry by Visible/NIR absorption spectroscopy. Tungsten oxide showed a dual spectroscopic response depending on the applied voltage and vanadium oxide presented several redox steps, which give rise to a variety of color transitions, also as a function of the applied voltage. Color space analysis was used to characterize the electrochromic transitions; monitorization of the color contrast and cycling tests, as well as techniques such as cyclic voltammetry, were also used to characterize device performance