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
#292 - Nazdar OEM Inks’ Push to Expand the Boundaries of Industrial Inkjet
In this episode of the FuturePrint Podcast, we speak with Martin Burns, Business Development Manager for Nazdar’s OEM Ink division, about how the company is driving innovation across the fast-evolving world of industrial inkjet.
While many in the industry know Nazdar for its global ink portfolio, the OEM division operates differently—functioning as a specialist R&D partner for equipment manufacturers, integrators and emerging industrial innovators. Martin explains how his team acts as an extension of partners’ technical groups, providing chemistry expertise, printhead insight and application knowledge that most OEMs cannot resource internally. This collaborative model accelerates development and supports more reliable and more capable inkjet systems.
A major theme of the conversation is Nazdar’s ultra-high-viscosity inkjet technology, capable of jetting at up to 100 cP. This opens a much wider formulation space, enabling new levels of stability, opacity, adhesion and performance. Martin outlines its impact across several sectors: textiles, where higher-density whites improve hand-feel and wash resistance; corrugated packaging, where better optical density can be achieved even on uncoated substrates; and coding and marking, where high-speed barcodes and QR codes benefit from sharper definition.
Water-based development remains central to Nazdar’s strategy, particularly for markets where regulatory and environmental pressures demand safer, lower-impact inks. Martin describes how Nazdar is helping OEMs overcome challenges around drying, energy consumption and substrate performance.
Finally, Martin previews Nazdar’s participation at FuturePrint Industrial Print in Munich, where senior members of the OEM team—including R&D chemists—will be on site for in-depth technical discussions. Rather than a traditional sales booth, the aim is to enable meaningful collaboration and accelerate the next wave of inkjet innovation.
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FuturePrint TECH: Industrial Print: 21-22 January '26, Munich, Germany
And welcome to this episode of the Future Print Podcast. I'm going to have back with me today Martin Burns, who's business development manager of NASDAQ OEM Inks. Welcome back to the podcast, Martin.
SPEAKER_01:Thanks, Marcus. Pleasure to be here as always.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. Yeah, no, it's good. I'm fortunate to be able to get you at um in the UK for a change. I know you've been traveling a lot this year. It's been a pretty massive year, but before we get into talking about that, not everybody would have heard who you are. But so give us a little bit of an intro about yourself, Martin, and and and what it is you do at NASDAQ OEM.
SPEAKER_02:Okay. So as you uh correctly introduced, I'm Martin Burns of Nasdaq. I work with the OEM Ink division. So for those that don't know, Nasdaq is a ink development and manufacturing company. So we um formulate, design, and produce different types of um ink technology, whether that's green, uh digital, we work with waterbase, GV curable inks. Um so specifically, I work um for the inkjet division, and within that division, um I work with the OEM group. So we're a group within NASDAQ that work with key partners. So whether that's um an equipment manufacturer, whether that's a system integrator, print head manufacturer, or that could even be someone from outside of the print industry that wants inkjet as part of their production. Um we would work with these people to understand their projects, um, design fluid solutions around that and help them get to market in whatever shape is necessary.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, so you're you're really sort of focused. It's different to this, I guess, the core NASDAQ business, isn't it? That's much more perhaps maybe standardized products for standardized and stable applications. It's just like an area of the business that's developing new things all the time for new applications, is that right?
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, absolutely. You know, Nasdaq has got um a network throughout the world of um you know fantastic partners that resell our products. Um, we have product lines that we market through those dealers, we you know provide technical service, we provide um great support for them. But as you say, Marcus, that's the establishment of a product portfolio um that we then go on and sell. What we do differently in the OEM um part of our business is although we do have some core technologies, so we have you know UV products for different markets, we have water-based products for different markets, oil, solvent, that type of thing. When we engage with a partner, what we like to do is understand what they're trying to achieve. And most of the time, that means a custom ink development. So we want to fully understand how their piece of equipment is going to be designed, what their end users need, and how we can give them something different. How can we get them into a great position within a market um with advantages? So, yeah, so it's very much um partner-led. Yeah, we want to focus on the needs of um the people that we engage with, and then we work back from there. And you know, we we've spoken before that we do this in um quite a specific way, quite a different way, really, to um many other people within the industry, and that we we want our OEM partners to have direct access to our resources. So we want them to have access to our research and development team, our technical service team, to our business development team. And all this is to make sure that they can have an ink development section of their business. So we would work with their project team, we would be able to give them the benefit of our knowledge, of our experience right the way through their project. You know, and when people are very old, when their business is designing hardware, it's often not part of their business to have chemists involved, to have, you know, um fit you know, physics experts involved in that, to have a wider um understanding and experience of inkjet outside of the markets that they're serving. And you know, we've seen a lot um where our experience across multiple different markets can benefit um our partners within one specific market.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, you're you're you're like a highly experienced technical lab kind of group of experts that can help, I guess, OEM partners really understand about getting the right chemistry in place at the beginning of the innovation process, I suppose.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, and we we want to, you know, we we we use the term um you know, semi-joking, but kind of serious really, in that we want to be their lab, you know. If our partners have got questions on chemistry, we want them to come to us. We want them to be able to lean on us and to use our experience, knowledge, and and and talent in our RD team to really benefit their business, you know. A lot of the time it's not economic for OEMs or system integrators to invest in chemists to carry out that work, you know, and so we want to provide that function for them. So all this is you know, it's a very different way of working um within the NASDAQ organization, but also within the industry itself, you know. Um we're not a very we're not a closed-door organization, we're very open with our partners, and you know, and all this is to really push forward um the boundaries with Inkjet. You know, it's something that we're very passionate about. That you know, we work within an ecosystem of Inkjet, you know. I think, you know, the industry has come on in the last, certainly the last five to ten years, leaps and bounds, in that we now get together at events like FuturePrints, where you know you have ink manufacturers that might have competed before, but now there is a sense of um joint ownership over the proliferation of inkjet. You have system integrators, you have ink delivery system manufacturers, you have electronics manufacturers, all these companies coming together to create, you know, a wider inkjet market and you know more opportunities for everybody.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, and that that's a cultural difference. I guess NASDAQ, I view it as a very sort of a big player, global player, a significant player, but equally you've retained this kind of innovative kind of approach and culture, which is I think sets you aside from perhaps some of the others that you might compete with.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, absolutely. You know, we we try to ask ourselves certain questions, you know, in terms of what is our position, what can we bring to the table for Inkjet? You know, and I think we'll talk about some of the ways that we do that um a little bit later. But what we want to do is look at certain markets that we participate in and that we've got partners in and ask what we can do to break down barriers of entry? That's a very big thing for us, you know. What is holding Inkjet back? Is that something that is fundamental in Inkjet, in digital as opposed to analog? Is that something inherent in that industry? Um, or is that specific to our partner? What do they need? Can we help them with that with their knowledge base with yeah, and and offer some expertise in in that regard? So, yeah, we like to challenge ourselves on not just doing what we need to do to sell more ink, but what can we do to push the industry forward and be, you know, um a provider of opportunities for uh for the market?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, absolutely. And one of those for sure has been um an exciting development over the past sort of 12 to 18 months has been um ultra-high viscosity. Could you explain a little about what ultra-high viscosity means and how that's developed, I guess, over the past year or so?
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, absolutely. So ultra-high viscosity. Now, um I have to dip my cap here to the screen market, in that when we're talking about ultra-high viscosity in terms of inkjet, we're looking at um jetting viscosities of um around up to 100 centipoises, and that's at jetting temperature. So the fluids can start off higher than that. So, in regards to screen inks, these would still be very low viscosity, but for inkjet, that's typically um, you know, in the region of two to twelve centipoise, largely, depending on what type of print head's being uh being used, we're shifting that now. And so we're developing inks that are you know typically between, as I say, 30 and 100 centipoids at jetting temperature. Um, one of the things that, you know, to kind of make clear with this is that the viscosity thing is probably it's a term that's been led by an ink manufacturer. So Nasdaq looks at things from the ink perspective. What this actually brings is a window. So when we increase the viscosity of an ink, we now have the opportunity to build in um functionality. And we do this by innovations in chemistry, by raw material selection, by, you know, we've described it before as opening another book in chemistry in terms of the raw materials we can use, the processes we can use. But this is all about building functionality um within an inkjet ink. You know, and again, going back to when we task ourselves with, you know, what does the market need, what are the barriers of entry. Ultra high viscosity has been absolutely intrinsic in that, you know, when we look at some of the major challenges, particularly around water base, um, that that has prevented or has delayed or slowed down the adoption of inkjet, things like energy consumption, things like the footprint of printers as when they need to have long drain tunnels, you know, when we look at cost per print, when we look at reliability of water-based inkjet for industrial applications, all these things have been challenges for equipment manufacturers, and it's been a challenge for the industry in general. Our ingress into um other print modes has been slowed because of that. So, yeah, so when we start off, for example, with ultra-high viscosity, uh water-based solutions, asking ourselves these questions on what's held back inkjet so far, what are the key issues, what are the problems? We use ultra-high viscosity as a tool to be able to address those. So, you know, the the fact that the ink is high viscosity is interesting because this is outside of the norm, but the secret is in the source. You know, what we have is a window, what we have is an opportunity to build in chemistry, build in that functionality and do things differently. And this is all about bringing about features and benefits for the OEM, but also for the end user, you know, and this is where we've got to start. We've got to start thinking of what we can do on a macro scale and what's going to benefit things, and look at that literally at a micro scale in terms of the chemistry um that we're employing and that we're developing.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, so it's it's it's a technical challenge that you've achieved, and as you said, it it provides a um a new window of opportunity or visitor opportunity. What what kind of markets might that be of interest to?
SPEAKER_02:So we're exploring several. Um we've interestingly, you know, this year has been a great year for us in relation to uh ultra-high viscosity. In the at the start of the year, we had the basis of um four or five separate products, each targeted at a specific market. Since then, these products have developed, we've developed them in combination with our partners, and we have you know several um key markets that we're addressing key issues in. So, just as an example, when we look at the textile market, you know, one of the challenges that their faces there is getting um suitable white pigmented inks down onto fabrics in the right volume, but also being able to have the characteristics that are required. So specifically for that market, adhesion, how does and also how does the material feel afterwards? Is it wash resistant? Is it reliable? All these things are very important to the textile market, you know. So we've been uh focusing on on that. And when we've got this viscosity window, can we do things like increase the amount of pigment that we put in in a controlled manner that is still stable in an inkjet system, still gives reliability, but enables an OEM to put down less ink, and so then you increase your um your adhesion, you also increase um the quality of the hand feel because you've got less of an ink layer down. So, for example, so that's an example within textile. Within packaging, if we looked at um corrugated packaging, um there are several directions that we've taken here that we're exploring, and each has benefits. You know, when we look at we originally targeted high ultra-viscosity inks at the lower cost end of the market. So we were looking at this as if we can get a print quality that has optical density and um image um quality of a high value piece, but on a low-cost substrate, so on an uncoated, unprimed substrate, could we get high optical density? Could we get good image integrity? Um, we thought that would be um you know a real game changer. You know, and and this is an area of the market that has had a lot of uptake for us. What was interesting though is when we explored that more is that maybe it's too soon to only have uncoated, unprimed substrates. The market is actually asking for uncoated, unprimed, but also coated, unprimed, and coated and primed. So, how could we adapt this technology to be able to cater for all the different substrate needs within that? And that's been sorry, excuse me, a challenge this year, and one that we've uh we've had some great success with, you know, and now we're in a very strong position to really cater for all the target markets that um that sector holds. You know, and when we come to things like coding and marking as well, so very high density, um the reproduction of barcodes, QR codes at very high speed onto absorbent substrates with a pigmented ink. Um there are several challenges in that. Um and yeah, and we're we're finding great success there as well.
SPEAKER_00:Brilliant. So it's been really exciting. I think the key word you mentioned there, exploring, isn't it? So this is a process of exploration. This is possible. I suppose there's a number of things that need to align. One technical two what's the commercial point? The fact you can do it, is it gonna add a commercial value or performance advantage? But clearly it has, right? And and and you also rewinding a bit, you've you've mentioned several times water-based being key, and that that that seems to be still as important now as it was a year ago as a a driver for for ink manufacturers to develop water-based solutions for inkjet as well, right?
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, absolutely. You know, and I think if a if a print solution can be provided that is water-based, largely it's preferable to most other carrier types or methods, generally speaking. But I think when we get to things like packaging, you know, when we think of things that people are going to handle, things that might contain food for people, water-based is, you know, very important in those areas. Textile, again, very important when people are handling um and wearing clothes. You know, and and the regulations that are set out in these industries dictate that um, you know, the inks have to conform to many uh very important standards. So water-based has been a key element for us. Um yeah, we we do have a lot of um UV projects as well. Yeah, we are looking at high-viscos T UV. Um, we have you know good UV label business as well, you know. So we we we are very OFA with both technologies, but you are right that um water base is particularly of interest, really because a lot of those barriers that we spoke about earlier haven't been fully addressed, you know, and and I think the the UV technology that's available today is a lot more advanced than the water base, generally speaking. It's been a lot more, it's a lot further along the adapt adoption um timeline as well.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, so there's a lot of work being done, and like you say, exploration and development and so on, and and it seems you're really leading the way there. So that's um reassuring to hear and and and really positive. Looking ahead to next year, obviously you're uh we're happy to have NASDAQ as a um exhibitor at our FuturePrint Industrial Print event in Munich. What will you be showing or talking about at that event? I I assume some of the things you've already mentioned.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, absolutely. We're really looking forward to the event. We're um, you know, during the year, most of the team is traveling the world, working with partners, and you know, future print is going to be an event where we come together, where we've got um the full complement of the OEM Nasdaq business development team there. We're going to have some of the RD chemists on the at the event as well. Because what we don't want to necessarily focus on is, you know, an opportunity for sales in the traditional sense. What we think is really good about future print events is that the industry comes together, we get a chance to talk to partners, so existing and potential new partners, and have meaningful conversations. You know, we want to talk to people properly rather than just swap business cards. You know, and when we've got an environment like that where um we can have real conversations, we we want the right people there. So yeah, so it's a great opportunity for uh for us to get together with you know the uh the OEMs that we're working with, but also to be able to talk about some of the new technology that we're working on. Um, you know, one of the things that will be being discussed there is high viscosity, but also some of our innovative UV um products as well and developments for 2026.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, yeah, it all sounds really interesting. And I I love the fact you're working in such diverse different industries, and you're talking on the one hand about textile and corrugated, the substrates are so phenomenally different. It must throw up a huge amount of um challenge in terms of creating the right ink for the right quality and so on and so forth. So it is it does sound complicated and equally that you have that kind of access to the right talent and technical team as well as commercial leads that are able to sort of make this happen. And I guess that goes back to where you we started in terms of that kind of innovative culture, yeah. That sense that you wanna you want these things to happen.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, absolutely. You know, and it it's you know what we've not tried to do is look at developing one thing and see how many homes we can fit that into, you know, and crowbar at one solution into many, you know, and this is something really intrinsic with the whole high viscosity message is that, you know, that is just an overarching term. When we look at our developments for things like flexible packaging, things like corrugated that we've spoken about, textile, coding and marketing. Each one of these formulations is fundamentally different. We're trying to achieve very different things. It's got the you know, the over, I say the overarching moniker of high viscosity, and that's true of each. You know, the viscosity is high, but the formulation is different. You know, we we are doing we are getting that ink to behave in very different ways. You know, and and within each of those sectors and within each of those formulations is the ability to be able to adapt that specifically for an OEM that's got a target market. So yeah, you know, the OEM thing, you OEMs using high viscosity in one field will be using a very different type of ink to an OEM using high viscosity in another. Yeah, and this is something that we welcome um events such as Futureprint to be able to go and talk to our partners about this. You know, it can seem complicated, but it can get misunderstood as to what benefits can be um you know be found for high viscosity with uh individual OEMs in different sectors. So we always find that actually talking face to face with people, explaining what the technology is and listening to what their challenges are, you know, and doing that with an appropriate team. As I say, when we when we form a team around an OEM involving an ink development um specialist, a chemist, um, technical service representative, and one of us lowly business development managers like myself, um, you know, somebody's got to make the coffee. So that's why we're there. Yeah, we want to be able to have these, you know, really detailed conversations and understand that need that they've got and how best that NASDAQ can serve to meet that.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, and it and and and like you said, it's um it's a team effort, isn't it? And and having that and and being among people and it sparks new ideas and and and and um you get you get new and problems solved and so on. So we're looking forward to seeing you obviously at Future Britain Induction Britain in Munich. Anybody um interested in meeting Martin, of course, come to Munich. But um we shall also put your information and and details in our show notes. Should anyone listening think, mm, interesting, I need to have a chat with Martin or put his details into or a LinkedIn link into your show notes. So um thanks for joining us, Martin. Anything, any final thoughts before we um we're moving towards the end of the year? I know you've still got travel plans, so it's been a busy year, but um looking ahead to next year, any final thoughts?
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, yeah, we're just really excited. You know, one of the um real bright spots is yes, we are working very hard right up to the end of the year. Um, but that's indicative of such a buoyan environment that we're working in right now. You know, Inkjet is growing, it's finding new areas, it's fine, you know, it's taking root in sectors where it's never been before. Um, and these are exciting times. Um, so yeah, final thoughts. Hope everybody has a great Christmas. Um, you know, let's you know let's enjoy the fact that Inkjet is growing, it's expanding. I think the Inkjet community is growing and working together like it never has before. Um, you know, I'm very pleased and proud to be part of that. And see you all at FuturePrint in January.
SPEAKER_00:Thanks very much uh for joining us, Martin. See you in Munich next.
