FuturePrint Podcast
FuturePrint is dedicated to and passionate about the power of print technology to enable new opportunities and create new value. This pod features deep-dive discussions with the people behind the tech as well as market analysis, trends, marketing and storytelling!
FuturePrint Podcast
#250: Inkatronic - Machine builder and inkjet development partner
The convergence of traditional engineering expertise with fresh innovative thinking can spark remarkable technological advancements. This fascinating dynamic is perfectly embodied by Inkatronic, an Austrian-based machine building and inkjet development company founded seven years ago but backed by decades of industry knowledge.
At the heart of this podcast is the compelling father-son partnership driving Inkatronic forward. George Bödler brings thirty years of inkjet experience and mechanical engineering prowess, while his son Mikael, who began working with inkjet technology at just 14 years old, now leads new business development with unbridled passion. Together, they've created a company that specializes in developing bespoke industrial inkjet solutions for manufacturing challenges that traditional methods struggle to solve.
What truly distinguishes Inkatronic is their comprehensive approach to technology selection and testing. Their R&D facility in Linz houses more than 30 different printer technologies, allowing them to thoroughly prototype and optimize solutions before machine development begins. This process includes waveform development, fluid characterization, and meticulous testing to ensure the perfect match between technology and application. From mechanical design through electronics, assembly, and implementation, the 18-person team handles everything in-house, giving them complete control over quality and customization.
The conversation reveals fascinating insights into emerging applications, with functional coatings representing a particularly promising frontier. Inkjet's ability to apply chemistry evenly and selectively to substrates like metal, glass, and electronics – all while remaining contactless – opens possibilities that traditional screen printing cannot match. Similarly, high-viscosity applications up to 250 centipoise, including epoxy adhesives and sustainable water-based inks for packaging, represent major growth opportunities that align perfectly with Inkatronic's capabilities.
Whether you're a manufacturing innovator seeking to digitalize processes, a chemistry developer looking for application expertise, or simply fascinated by the cutting edge of industrial print technology, this episode offers valuable perspectives on how specialized inkjet solutions are transforming industrial production.
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FuturePrint TECH: Industrial Print: 21-22 January '26, Munich, Germany
Welcome to the FuturePrint podcast celebrating print technology and the people behind it.
Speaker 2:Well, hi there and welcome to this week's special FuturePrint podcast. And I say special because we have a new partner with us, inkatronic. Very interesting business. Been kind of tracking you guys for a little bit of time observing what you do your machine building jet development company. Really interesting company, based in Austria. I've got two of the most significant people in the business with me today, george and Mika Berdler, which is, I guess, father and son have I got?
Speaker 1:that right.
Speaker 2:Yes, good, good, I'm going to get you to introduce yourself in a second. But interesting for us because Inkatronic are one of those companies that have been around a bit of time but are doing some very interesting things in inkjet development, customizing technology for industrial applications. We've got something interesting to say, so that's why we wanted to do this podcast. Let's start with Mika. Mika, as you're the youngest on the podcast, I think we should start in reverse rather than the other way around. Mika just introduce yourself, and then we'll get George to introduce himself.
Speaker 4:Yes, my name is Mikael Bödler. I lead here new business development at Inkatronic. I've been, in the meantime, involved with Inkjet since seven years. I began when I was 14 working with the technology and I very quickly fell in love, was passionate about it. So in every opportunity, my summer break I was working with drop watchers and with print heads and very quickly became interested in the business and right now I identify new markets and new applications for us where industrial inkjet technology can add value to products. And I coordinate as well testing here at our R&D facility value to products. And I coordinate as well testing here at our R&D facility. So really making sure that the applications are optimized as best as possible for our customers.
Speaker 2:Brilliant. And just for anyone who doesn't necessarily know you as a business, where is your R&D location?
Speaker 4:Yeah, we are based in Austria, in Linz, and yeah, the company, as in the meantime, we've founded Incatronic seven years ago, brilliant, brilliant.
Speaker 2:Thanks for that, george. Give us a little bit of insight in terms of who you are and, I guess, the founder.
Speaker 3:Yes, yes, I'm a few years older than Micke and I'm in Inkjet since 13 years. Meantime, yeah, 30. Three zero.
Speaker 1:Yeah wow, older than me and I'm in inkjet since 13 years meantime.
Speaker 3:Yeah, 30. So three zero years, yeah, well, yep. So I'm from my background mechanical engineer and I started in in 1995, getting involved with inkjet, and since this time I'm absolutely passionate because it's a continuous challenge. And I'm always talking to mika that inkjet now is starting, yeah, since a long time in it, yeah, but all the possibilities, fantastic applications in the, in the biomedical areas, in functional fluids, there's a lot of things going on and we have never had so much requests from very interesting companies with new ideas and new projects. So it's really popping up from our side and so I'm very happy that I have my son in this business. I'm a proud father because he's really catching up and it's a great pleasure to work together.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's nice to hear. So, as a business Synchronic if I was, you know if I'm trying to sort of work out what your position is in terms of what you do, what's unique about you who are Incotronic. You explained a little bit, but just give us a little bit more on that.
Speaker 3:So we are building specialized machines for inkjet applications. We have a team here from 18 people and we're building this equipment from scratch. So, starting with mechanical design, we have the designing and assembling. The electronic and electrical cabinets, have our own CNC manufacturing for manufacture big part of our components Assembling these machines, and then our core competence is the inkjet technology and we have a wide range of different applications. This can be typical graphic application with decor printing, can be also coating applications, functional fluids. We recently delivered a very wide, 3 meter wide module for binder jetting. We also delivered this year fully automated system for customer printing scales and this customer has a wide range of different designs in total 50,000 designs and different formats and this machine is handling this, let's say, fully automatic.
Speaker 4:But I believe what really differentiates us to other machine builders is our prototyping center. So what we are usually doing is we're really choosing the right printer technology for the customer application. In our lab we're having more than 30 different printer technologies and before we're even going into the designing of the machine, we're doing a very in-depth analysis of the right selection, right technology selection, and really developing the full process from way from optimization, from optimization of the curing or drying process, and really trying to find the suitable technology application yeah, that's interesting actually, because you know a lot of projects in inkjet for, particularly for industrial manufacturing processes that you know people come at it with a problem they're trying to solve and then the conversation starts by you know we're trying to do this and where do we go for that?
Speaker 2:so, in essence, what you guys are saying is look, you know, we, we do, we kind of offer the service of the, of the testing, in effect, of of working out what the best solution for a particular problem is. Is that right? Have I got that right correct? Yeah, and that that's fast, that fast tracks anyone who's looking at a project and it is typically they're trying to solve a problem, isn't it?
Speaker 4:They've got a manufacturing need and they're trying to work out a way in which to solve that problem using Inkjet Correct, or they are developing the chemistries themselves themselves and they're needing their understanding. They're coming from the chemistry side and they're needing a partner to um apply this, this um chemistry, to their, to their material, to their substrate and um, there we really, we really see ourselves well equipped and um well equipped to solve these challenges. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:Just for anyone from the industry are you fairly agnostic in terms of the technology you use? Is it your own technology? Is it partner technology? You know, when you're talking about the heads or the driver electronics or the software, where do you go for that?
Speaker 3:So software developments are mainly from our own team or complete from our own team, and in terms of electronics we are working with Meteor mostly, and our test equipment is all built up here by ourselves. We are also offering this to the market because we meantime have really further developed this test equipment. So in our lab we have all kinds of for single pass, for scanning, for roll, toto-roll for the normal print platforms, but then in the laboratory we have several Dropwatcher and each of them with some different features to really focus on the special customer needs.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah. And do you, just going back to that? Do you, as I said, look at different printhead technology? Do you try and fit the printhead technology to the particular requirement? Do you have partners that you work with? Explain to us a bit more about that.
Speaker 3:Yeah, when you see there are the different printheads in the field, they are all a bit different and they are not perfect for each application.
Speaker 2:Of course, yeah.
Speaker 3:When you have to jet over higher distances, you need different technology. You need bigger drops and high jetting speed. Bigger drops and high jetting speed want to produce fine details than the other printheads recommended and we are always testing and comparing and trying to select the right technology for this special project.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, yeah makes sense um, mika, tell us a little bit about kind of looking forward in terms of the innovations that you guys are coming up with or thinking about. What are you doing as a business to innovate what you do?
Speaker 4:I think I would say that what we try to focus to keep innovating our products, our machines, is working as close as possible with the printed manufacturers and really as well with the chemistry partners. We always say that there is this perfect cooperation, where you have the integrator, the printed manufacturer and the chemistry manufacturers, and this is where we see this partnership in this trio is where we can become the most efficient to come up with new solutions, to come up with new innovations, and in the meantime, we're doing this with pretty much all printed manufacturers, so really different applications, and I think this gives us this flexibility to come up with new solutions for different markets.
Speaker 2:Yeah, no, that makes sense. That absolutely makes sense. George, did you want to add anything to what Mika said there?
Speaker 3:Yeah, this is for us also. Our customers are the main innovators. They come with their ideas and then we're finding solutions for each. This is sometimes what really drives us forward.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 3:And yeah, now one side, when you say, okay, we are, we are working with different head manufacturers, there's also, it's also a little bit of balance. Yeah, that you, that you're not um mixing it together and we try to to handle this in the absolutely best possible way, but um, we also. We are also open. In the same way, we are not working with one one I was one ink manufacturer no, we are also open with our printed partners and um and and try to to um, yeah, not to bring out the best out of this partnerships for our customers. Customers, in the end, are the most important in this game. They are coming back and when they are recommending us, then the next application is then 13-grade with some other printhead together. Yeah, but it's also not.
Speaker 2:Let's say, we have to be there very, very careful that we don't mix there too much together and also keep in mind what are the interests of our partners yeah, sure, and also in terms of the customers, thinking what the customer is looking for. I'm just interested in particular segments or applications. What in the last few years have you seen particularly interesting? What do you foresee the future looks like in terms of demand? What's your sense with with what?
Speaker 3:people want. The really new things are coming up in functional coatings. There is a lot of activities going on to use inkjet to apply very even and also selective chemistry to metal glass electronics. So this is really a wide field where in the past screen printing mostly was doing the job, or even spray coating or powder coating, with all their disadvantages, and inkjet there is really opening new opportunities, especially in forms of evenness and perfection. We are capable to apply this chemistry.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, yeah. So, in essence, what I'm hearing you say there is that the traditional argument that screen print for functional printing was the best, the most accurate, the highest quality. You're basically saying now digital is coming alongside and it gives you greater flexibility, simplicity. You know all the other things that you want to try and achieve. So is that what you're saying?
Speaker 3:you know all the other things that you want to try and achieve. So is that what you're saying? Yeah, screen printing still has its advantages. Yeah, of course we will never substitute screen printing completely, but let's say the application for inkjet. They are growing and screen printing is, let's say, a stable technology.
Speaker 2:Sure, mika, you mentioned earlier new business development. You're interested in growing the business. What kind of areas are you particularly focused on?
Speaker 4:No, like Georg mentioned, I believe that functional cods, there is a massive potential, especially inkjet being one of the few technologies able to apply the chemistries without being contactless, not touching the material. But where we're also developing, where we have a lot of our internal projects going, is high viscosity. I think that there is interesting possibilities. As far as jetting of epoxy adhesives, we see that almost most of the printed manufacturers they're all following the trend of pushing to higher viscosities, jetting viscosities Coaching yeah, correct. So as of now we see ZAR leading this, but most of the other printed manufacturers see the potential in these applications.
Speaker 4:When looking as well in corrugated with high viscosity water-based things, we also see very interesting applications which can substitute the traditional UV. So there's there's areas where where high viscosity water-based inks in packaging there is a massive advantages from the, from the point of view of sustainability as well from recycling of the material, and I think these are all projects where we are fitting quite well in as far as our ink delivery systems go. So most of our applications begin in the in the regular inkjet viscosity and we keep developing our ink delivery systems, pushing them in the moment up to 250 cp and or m um, millipascal per second and see that high viscosity has a high priority for us in the future projects yeah, yeah, um, just just out of curiosity, um, in terms of marketplaces and geographic markets, you know, you guys based in aust Austria and obviously we're running our event in Munich we kind of see still significant manufacturing in the sort of DAC region.
Speaker 2:You know parts of what would have been called the East European market, so you know there's manufacturing still going on. What do you sense going forward? Do you see there see still solid need in Europe? Is there an interest in Asia, us, what are you thinking as a business?
Speaker 3:The markets are absolutely different. The Europeans, they're moving slow and the Asians, they are extremely quick. But in the end, this is also based on the mentality. When the Europeans are still discussing how they find the best way to develop it, the Asians are already testing and improving the things in the job, and this makes them tremendous efficient.
Speaker 3:and we must be also very careful because we see more and more innovations coming from their site yeah yeah, but we see also that the actual situation in europe starts changing also the the starts changing also the thinking Big enterprises. They're really putting their production processes upside down and say we have to innovate, we have to get out from what we are doing here traditionally. We have to innovate. We cannot lose the train here.
Speaker 2:Yeah, the fact that they've been in the market for a long time. They don't want to lose pace against an increasingly strong Asian market. So what you're saying, I think, is and I can back this up is things like automation, you know, ai, digital technology, innovation in production process all being looked at in Europe and people thinking about this seriously as a way of continuing to have strong presence in manufacturing in this region. So I think you're right and actually that benefits digital particularly, or inkjet particularly, doesn't it?
Speaker 3:I didn't catch the question. No, no.
Speaker 2:I guess that kind of that's a positive thing for industry generally is that they're looking at things like you've said uh, new technologies, new ideas, innovations and what you do is doing that is reflecting that from a more traditional analog process yes, yes, for us, it's for sure a big advantage.
Speaker 3:Competition makes the companies moving. Yeah, in the moment we have a lot of competition and a high need to to move.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so sure, we are focused in the european market with our projects, with our customers, but we see the asians in the more, in the moment, more innovative so I guess, from your point of view you want, you know, the europeans to continue, point of view, you want the Europeans to continue to innovate as well, you want them to be looking at this inkjet technology as a way of progressing, what they do. I would assume, sure, yeah, uh, mika, just just obviously, because you've you know, you come. Inkatronic are now going to be working with future print, which is great news. What is it you guys see as the value of working together with us and within the community we're in, which is, you know, as we know, sort of industrial inkjet community? What's the value for you guys?
Speaker 4:yeah, I um, it's a great question, I think, like I mentioned it's it's a great platform to connect with like-minded companies and individuals who are just as passionate as us to really push the boundaries of inkjet technology. We're really excited to be able to explore these new opportunities for collaboration and, whether this is with printed manufacturers, ink or chemistry partners or even even OEMs wanting to develop next-generation systems, I think this really will give us this opportunity not only to connect but as well to showcase our projects and the things that we are developing. So I really value this community and I am sure that that um in a in a in a in a few months time, the new projects and leads my can generate from this yeah, brilliant.
Speaker 2:And and I guess also you mentioned, you know, your development, technology development but also you do testing as well, don't you? So you know that's quite an interesting thing for a few of our kind of manufacturers out there, and that whole area of testing, that R&D that you guys specialize in. Tell us a bit more about that.
Speaker 4:Yeah, like I mentioned here, we are constantly further investing in our R&D facility there. We're having a wide range of test stations. In our R&D facility there we're having a wide range of test stations and since we are able, we're in full control of the process. I think this gives us this space really to push the technology to its limits. We're doing the waveform development. We're as well doing the fluid characterization. So even when partner companies are coming to us with their fluids, before even filling them into the printed, we are able to tell the customer if it's going to be jetable, if it is not jetable, what they need to change in their formulation. And this really gives us this advantage and this boost when wanting to develop new applications. And I think that as well.
Speaker 4:We're overall well-located here in Europe. So we have most a lot of our customers coming on site and we are not in any way we're open to sharing our know-how. We are not wanting to hide anything from our customers, so we're doing a lot of training. So when our customers are coming to us, it's also in our interest to um to share um this know-how, because we see that the projects are only moving forward um efficiently when this know-how is is spread, they are when it's growing within, uh, the companies internally and, um, this is something that we're happy to do. So because it's really about educating educating what the technology is able of achieving, and I think this is what's been working very well here in our R&D center, and I hope that this is as well developing further with different partners.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean, it's an interesting USP. It's a good thing for you to be sharing, as you said exactly, and the added value that people get a little bit development and training. That really is valuable. Yeah, it's good to hear that, and one of the things we've often said about this particular marketplace, this particular industrial inkjet marketplace, it's quite a collaborative environment there's. You know, people work together to develop technology.
Speaker 4:we have a kind of final interest and and that's really lovely to hear that you guys are doing that and that's part of your remit and part of your thinking yeah, when, when we're looking at the machines we're building, right, we are, we're talking about um working with, with a company from maybe the, the pre-treatment, if it is plasma, if it is flaming. We're working with them with curing and drying partners from the ink side, from the printed side, electronic side, so it really is, is is um, really our projects? Where, when you're able to share your know-how and learn as well from the partners, this is really where I think projects are becoming, are realizing in the most efficient way. And yeah, you're right.
Speaker 2:I think you're right. Listen, guys, it's been really good having a chat with you, finding out a bit more about Incotronic Really interesting. I know that you guys are going to be interesting to the market and to our community in particular, so I'm really pleased that we've done this podcast. It gives you a chance to explain a little bit more about what you do. We look forward to seeing you at our development group meeting which we're running on the 3rd of July, so that'll be good to see you there. There's about 25 other people coming. That'll be interesting. And then, you know, throughout the autumn period before the show, the event in January, we'll be doing more and more stuff with Incotronic. You'll see more in the press and more on our blog site. It's been great to speak to you both. Mika George, thank you very much for your time. Thank you very much.
Speaker 1:Fraser. Thank you for listening. If you enjoyed this episode, you can subscribe now for more great audio content. Coming up and visit futureprinttech for the latest news, partner interviews, in-depth industry research and to catch up on content from Futureprint events. We'll see you next time on the Futureprint podcast.
