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
#302 - Seiko & Fraunhofer: A New Model for Inkjet Innovation in Functional Printing and Advanced Manufacturing
In this episode of the FuturePrint Podcast, we explore an exciting new collaboration reshaping the future of industrial inkjet. Fabio Tallarico of Seiko Instruments GmbH and Jan Janhsen of Fraunhofer IPA join us to discuss how their organisations are working together to advance functional printing, high-viscosity jetting, and inkjet-based manufacturing.
Following the closure of Seiko’s in-house lab, the company sought a new approach to R&D — one that could provide scientific depth, hands-on experimentation, and access to advanced facilities. Fraunhofer IPA, one of Europe’s leading applied research institutes, became the ideal partner.
Together, the teams now collaborate on:
- waveform development and drop analysis
- print testing across varied substrates and ink types
- evaluating high-viscosity, conductive, UV, and water-based inks
- exploring jetting limits and application-specific performance
- investigating new functional applications including adhesives, coatings, and 3D structures
For Fraunhofer, the partnership ensures its research remains grounded in real industrial challenges. For Seiko, it broadens access to cutting-edge measurement tools, material expertise, and scientific knowledge — accelerating development of the next-generation RC2560 printhead.
The conversation also highlights wider trends shaping industrial inkjet:
the shift toward sustainable materials, increasing demand for functional layers, advances in additive manufacturing, and the future potential of AI in waveform optimisation and process control.
This collaboration demonstrates how innovation grows faster when companies work together — sharing knowledge, testing boundaries, and combining scientific insight with practical engineering.
A must-listen for anyone interested in industrial inkjet, functional printing, advanced manufacturing, or collaborative R&D.
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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_01:Well, hi there, welcome to this week's podcast from FuturePrint, and I'm pleased to have two speakers with me today, both of who are going to be speaking uh about a really interesting project uh between Seiko and Franhofer. Um, let me introduce them first. I've got Fabio from Seiko. Fabio, just intro yourself.
SPEAKER_03:Hi, um, yeah, my name is Fabio, and I'm uh working at Seiko Instruments almost since four years as a technical support engineer. So this means I'm supporting customers who are completely new in the inkjet industry, or even existing customers. Um supporting the waveform development, supporting uh installing our printhead, our new printhead, training about waveform development, everything which is um combined with our printhead and uh service around the whole inkjet system.
SPEAKER_01:Yep, fantastic. We often we often see Ali, so it's nice to have a different person talking from Seiko, which is good news. Um, and then we have Jan, Jan Jansen, who is from the Fraunhofer Institute. And Jan, you explain a little bit about you and a bit about Fraunhofer for anyone who doesn't know the organization.
SPEAKER_02:Sure, thanks for hosting us. My name is Jan Jansen, I'm a team manager at Fraunhofer IPA, located in Stuttgart, Germany. Uh Fraunhofer in a nutshell, it's all about applied research. We have 70 institutes all around Germany with some site offices around the globe with more than 30,000 employees. And um actually each institute has a specific focus for for its in its institute. We're focusing on production and automation technologies. Um, and um actually I'm team manager in the department of additive manufacturing, mostly focusing on interplay technologies.
SPEAKER_01:Brilliant. So that's really interesting for us. Obviously, future print, we're very focused on industrial print technologies and in particular advanced manufacturing. So that's really going to be interesting for us to pick up on. Um Fabio, I wanted to start with you just to ask the question. Um, Seiko had uh a very interesting approach because they had a lab uh that they were able to do a little bit of the testing, working with different partners. Uh, and then we kind of decided Japan decided to stop that, but obviously working with Fraunhofer has given you a great opportunity. So just explain the story around that.
SPEAKER_03:Um, yeah, sure. So, as you already mentioned, um we were in this discussion or at the point where we were asking the question like, how can we um continue to innovate without a lab in Frankfurt or in Neuesenburg? So, since we have a really good relationship with the Fraunhofer IPA and um with Jan, um, we were thinking about to have a cooperation with the Fraunhofer IPA, and um which is actually very beneficial for us because um yeah, the institute has a lot of equipment, lab devices, which we can um use um according to an agreement, and of course to to um yeah strengthen somehow our our relationship and also to exchange our knowledge. So when I come to Stuttgart, that I will learn something new about um inks, about um other testing devices, which is always very good, and the same for Jan and Jan's team at uh at the institute that they learn more about our printhead, the RC 1536. But of course, um now in future focus will be on the new one, the RC2560. And um we have yeah, much more possibility to play around with the new printhead, with the older one, um, waveform development, um, doing print tests and compare these print results. So um in total, it's actually a really good um update, let's say.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, right. I understand. Or upgrade, yes. Yeah, yeah, of course. A good collaboration, but also in a way, possibly you get another uh kind of stream of knowledge from the Fraunhofer group. So Jan, let's let's sort of ask the question the other way round. So firstly, just maybe describe what you have uh within your lab environment, and then explain why the Seiko relationship is quite important and quite interesting.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, sure. So so maybe starting with the second question first, uh, what why it is important for us. So and then going back to equipment-wise, uh Frauner is all about applied resource. So our ambition is to bring RD results to the industry, to application. And therefore, um we we set our goals in an RD project and also in direct industry collaborations, such as here with Psycho, uh, to have a service portfolio on site which enables certain customers for us. For us, um, it's all about functional in-ject printing. So everything beyond classical graphic in-jet printing is more exciting than the digital printing was just purely graphic um background, like a printed structure would actually do something, replacing a coating, uh printing and adhesive, convective material, insulating layers, uh, replacing spin coating, for example, for silicon wafer, which is a rather wasteful process with a digital process. And to do so, for sure, coming back to your first question, uh, we need to have two things on site. Uh, on the one hand side is the right infrastructure to run the experiments and to enable process development and inkjet printing, especially. Um, so that's that's basically all what you need to have for inkjet printed printing uh and process development, which you need to have on site, starting with yourology qualification, rear meters, uh, high frequency rear meters, surface tension measurements, particle analytics, uh, actually benefit from um other departments which are around our campus here in our institute, which uh do luck and paint development, um which uh we can utilize also measurement equipment in terms of analytics um on uh in in the really early beginning to get an utmost good understanding about the biology of link. Um and once we know that, and once we know that the link is printable, for sure having all the infrastructure on site for dropwatching, for um and open print test tricks um from from um partners like CMAX to doing an open way from uh print strategy development, that's something what we have on site here. And then for that, for sure we go to certain applications, as mentioned, uh functional is especially interesting for us.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, yeah, understand. Um Fabio, so what were the typical kind of requests you were getting from industry? Um, I mean, Jan mentioned drop watching and wave development. What were you getting?
SPEAKER_03:Um yeah, so um it was like very widespread. So it was just away from development, it was uh just away from training or like the way from training parallel to the to the development at the drop watcher, but also like print tests and like different tests. So you have like the normal uh water-based inks and just printing on paper to see how how the um the printhead in general is uh working to see the the yeah, the printhead, but also like very specific. Okay, um, because customers wanted to print with an UV ink, so you need a UV curing station as well, um, and printing on wood or plastic, um, even with um like uneven surfaces. They wanted to see high gap printing, they want to see if it's like what is the print result when you print with three millimeter and then at the same time uh 10 millimeter. So since our printhead is very um yeah, flexible, we had um a lot of different um customer requests.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, sure. Um and from the point of view of kind of surface behavior, I guess Jan, you the Brownhopper can can give you a bit more, give uh an understanding of what surface behavior impacts on print head performance and uh you know that sort of thing. Is that right?
SPEAKER_02:Well, surface behavior, I would say it's more or less the wetting behavior of the on the surface, so that that that's actually like doing contact angle measurements and and actually deriving the right pro uh pre-processing strategy, flame treatment, corona, plasma treatment, uh to to for the appropriate substrate. And again, this is something again infrastructure-wise, which is on site and all and which can be tested and analyzed up front.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, and how ink works and how the ink will how the ink will work on a different surface.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, in the end, uh that's especially uh crucial to to derive the right printing strategy, the right printing resolution in the very end, to to come to whatever is the requirement from the customer, is it a homogeneous layer, or is it uh a specific layer height which you want to print? So, and therefore you need to have this understanding on the wetting behavior on the surface. Sure, sure.
SPEAKER_01:Um, I kind of guess this is an interesting collaboration, it offers quite a lot of opportunity and kind of broadens the knowledge that uh both sides have. Um, what's your personal views on on the value of the collaboration? Fabio, what's what's Seiko's view on working in this way?
SPEAKER_03:Um well, as I yeah already mentioned before, the the value is definitely the the cooperation and the knowledge load knowledge exchange, yep, and also trying to find um like the limits of the printed as well. Like because we have of course our team in Japan, but um not always they um have the capacity to to do like really research things, so this is really good to have um an institute where we can uh work together and find out the limits of the older printed or the new printed, um not only the printed um um technical performance, but also ink-wise, where we can say okay, what is the limit of the high viscosity inks? Um, what is the limit of conductive inks? Did we even try it out or not? So if we have some spare time, like it's not only focused on customer request, but also for for ourselves, um, that we analyze other inks, other technical performances, and can share this with Braunhofer, obviously, and also share to the to the market, which is also um again beneficial for for both sides.
SPEAKER_01:Of course, yeah, of course. Uh yeah, and yeah, and what's the Fraunhofer view of of working with Seiko? I mean, as you mentioned, you you mentioned earlier, you know, there's other partners you're working with CMARX and other companies, but particularly what is the value for you?
SPEAKER_02:Well, again, that's quite obvious for an applied research institute. Not doing research for the purpose of the response. Yeah, but not doing research for the purpose of doing research, but with being really practically orientated and having a service portfolio in the end which fits to market needs. And for me, a collaboration like this brings a very healthy level of relevance and urgency into research. So we are not just working on really abstract questions, but we are working with real print partners with real-world programs in the industry, and we know on what focus uh and in what topics to focus within in the next um like research project, also. So it's also forces us to translate between research language on the one hand side, which can be somehow academically driven, and industrial language. So what is needed in the very, very end on an end customers, um, and that's challenging, but also that that's the good thing with such kind of a collaboration and a partnership, so that we will get real real problems directly to in our fat to in our lab, because sometimes we are not approached by customers, but or maybe it's psycho or other um externals are uh um approached, and um then they can forward these to to our institute.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, yeah, I guess I guess because they have a relationship with the customer, the customer might say, Hey, listen, we've got a challenge here, how do we deal with this? And it's it works quite nicely to come to you with that challenge and say, Can you look at this for us?
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, in in in a nutshell, it's very basically I I would say it's combining scientific depths with practical impact. That that's yeah, yeah, yeah. Which would describe it the best, I would say.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, yeah, and just before we we talk a bit more about the kind of next projects, I just uh Fraunhofer as an organization and particularly your department. Where do you personally see inkjet technology in advanced manufacturing? Where is it going?
SPEAKER_02:Question there. They're a nice applicant application um where well especially away from the typographical sector um where we are currently focusing on printing adhesive for fuel cell uh stacking, for uh also for e-motors. Um so all the adhesive um sector uh can be quite interesting because materials getting adapted to intip printing on the one hand side and material uh and print heads if are evolving to also enabling uh higher viscosities and being uh able to jet materials which have not been possible to jet before. And that that's on the one hand side for for the adhesive, I would say, uh a nice opportunity, but also for um surface decoration in terms of um 3D or 2.5 D surface decorations for for for um for substrates in automotive, for example. So um this is uh for sure, I guess, uh an a nice sector to to focus on, um, because for sure in in in in in in general, like all the the traditional digital printing or the printing for for for graphical will slowly decrease within the next year with more uh uh digital media available and with display tech in um so rather shifting to function makes completely sense from from I would say from a printed manufacturer perspective to at least open up new markets for market businesses as maybe the main market might go down uh a bit within the next years. At least this is what I would expect.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, okay, thank you for that vision of the future. Uh Fabio, just uh thinking about new projects, next projects, and what comes next. Um obviously, you know, there's always the topics that we hear a lot about sustainability, AI, you know, sustainability might link to bio-based inks. What are you what are you sensing? Um what what would you know what do you think of the next projects of areas of interest for Seiko?
SPEAKER_03:Um yeah, definitely the the point um of sustainability um or environmental um based, bio-based inks, sorry. Um because in in some industries, this is really like the next step or the futures. Uh the future, especially at the corrugated market or the textile market, where um yeah, the industry is just switching to water-based inks because of uh market behavior, people, but also the EU regulation, etc. So this is definitely where we have to go and also to focus with the new printhead. Um but also not only sustainability-wise, but also high viscosity is uh a huge market demand. Um and this is now again like focused on on the printhead itself and the ink, how how they are um working together. And you mentioned AI, which is of course um a very big topic right now and also in the future. We of course we we try to focus that as well, and maybe at some point we can try to implement it in in any process, if it's for the printed, for the ink, for the for the data, whatever. Um we we are really open for that and we want to to push that with Fraunhofer if uh if they have any advice or ideas. I mean, they have more um data, more um devices, just a bigger lab, so and also more stuff. So I think there is more knowledge and uh recommendations about these topics. So we are very open in regards to this, and we always try to to go forward.
SPEAKER_01:Yep. Yep. Jan, any comments on that?
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, I would see I I I would like to draw like a more practical and bigger picture. So it's not only about the cooperation with Cycle, but with within an ecosystem with OEMs or integrators also being included, because on the one hand side, for sure, you need to have the printed on site, which is the key puzzle piece within pro within every application in the printing, but in the very end, you need to have a machine which is running at a customer end and also working not only with DMAX, with Encatronic, then with other system integrators also closely together to enable certain applications. That's really uh crucial for us because elsewhere we are just having like a nice drop watching setup which uh gives the proof of concept that something is working, or that based test trick which gives the proof of concept, but in the very, very end you need to have like multiple partners on hand um to come to certain applications.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, yeah, yeah. I think that's right. Um so, gentlemen, as we come to the close um of our podcast, and as I mentioned earlier, uh Jan will be with um Ali down in um in Munich for the event uh January 21st, 22nd. Uh so uh it'll be interesting to hear a little bit more about uh the work that uh Fran Hoffer are doing with Seiko and others. Um Fabio, was there anything you wanted to add uh as a sort of you know positive out of of kind of the challenge of closing the lab and growing, you know, the what the working together?
SPEAKER_03:Um yeah I just want to to say that um we we as Seiko always try to see the the positive things. Um so in this case, the of course it it's it's not not positive that our lab was closed, but again we were thinking how to to innovate it, how to move forward, and uh um trying to to think positive. And I think this is definitely a positive outcome, um, even though the the lab is closed. And we we are convinced that in the next years this cooperation um
SPEAKER_01:will be very good and we will have some really good um results and print tests um ink uh analysis which uh have never been done before um so i think this is a good next step for the future yeah yeah agree um yeah and you you mentioned it a couple of times within this industry there's quite a considerable bit of collaboration which is really valuable always around what's your final thoughts i guess i can just fully agree with what what fogger said for me it's it's really a good example how something which looks like on the first glimpse as a setback like closing a lab can really turn into an opportunity um and uh that's hopefully and how I see this collaboration and we are looking for for other partners to to to to uh for for collaborations as well so that's that's actually something which I really appreciate the openness of of psycho with all the time with the all the discussions which which we had so um generally speaking um if something turns out bad in the very beginning it might end up really in in in an opportunity generally yeah exactly we we often say this don't we uh in in in you know within those kind of challenges we have opportunity so gentlemen thank you very much for just giving us a bit of insight into the collaboration as you said yourself uh it's a valuable thing and you want to you know work with more people and I think you know within this industry there certainly is a degree at which people are quite open and uh do do work together so that's uh really a real positive gentlemen thank you very much good glad we could get together to have a little chat and uh look forward to seeing you Jan and Fabio great to meet you and I'm sure that I will see uh other Seiko people down in Munich in a few weeks' time thank you very much for your time gentlemen thank you for listening if you enjoyed this episode you can subscribe now for more great audio content coming up and visit futureprint.tech for the latest news, partner interviews in depth industry research and to catch up on content from future print events.
SPEAKER_00:We'll see you next time on the Futureprint podcast
