Nadina Using presenting at FuturePrint TECH Packaging, Labels & DTS, where Flexibility was the name of the game. Industrial Inkjet requirements for the Packaging market, focusing on Food, Medical and Industrial applications. Focus was given to the future of Recycling and being reading for changes implemented this year and again in 2027, 2030 and 2040 within the EU and further afield.
Article below courtesy of Frazer Chesterman, FuturePrint.
“At FuturePrint 2025 in Valencia, Nadina Using from the Cambridge-based firm Industrial Inkjet took to the stage not to promise disruption, but to underline a reality: packaging, particularly in food, pharma and industrial sectors, is facing regulatory upheaval—and the only viable response is flexibility, both in mindset and machine.
IIJ’s journey began in 2005 with a technical partnership with Konica Minolta. Its evolution since has been characterised less by aggressive marketing than by a series of iterative, application-driven deployments: coding units at 300 metres per minute, abrasion-resistant wide formats for industrial packaging, and most recently, compact mono units such as the internally launched Small MonoPrint (SMP). The message in Valencia was that longevity in print is earned not by novelty, but by reliability under pressure.
That pressure is growing. New EU legislation on packaging waste—ratified at the close of 2024—has set binding reuse and recyclability targets for 2030 and 2040. These include minimum recycled content requirements (as high as 65% for single-use plastics), restrictions on packaging volume, and an eventual phase-out of certain materials, such as PFAS compounds. For producers of food and beverage containers, toiletries, condiment sachets, and fruit and vegetable wraps, compliance will become a structural constraint.
In pharmaceuticals, similar dynamics apply. By January 2025, all medicinal products sold in the UK will require “UK Only” labelling. By 2028, the EU will mandate harmonised reusability symbols and QR codes for all packaging. These elements must coexist with tightly regulated pharmaceutical information, in increasingly compact formats. In practice, this means labels that are not just durable, legible and tamper-proof, but increasingly digital, scalable, and environmentally neutral.”
Printheads
IIJ’s case is not that it has a single solution for this complexity—but rather that its technology is designed to adapt. The company supports a wide portfolio of Konica Minolta printheads. These also support solvents, offering variations in drop volume, ink chemistry, and resolution. This allows for tailored setups across various use cases including UV, latex & functional fluids. Throw distances range from 2 to 15 millimetres depending on configuration; speed options peak at 300 metres per minute in monochrome.
But printheads are only part of the story. The firm places particular emphasis on pre-deployment testing—jetting reliability, ink stability, environmental tolerance, and waveform dynamics. The aim is not just technical compatibility, but long-term system integrity. There’s also a clear preference for partnership: clients receive not just machinery, but a calibrated “recipe” built around ink, substrate, and conditions.
Inkjet Performance
This is especially relevant in markets where ink performance cannot be compromised. Medical and pharmaceutical packaging, for instance, must resist abrasion, chemical exposure, and high-temperature sterilisation. Meanwhile, industrial formats must endure salt air, microbial growth, solar radiation, and electrolysis. Here, durability is not just desirable; it is non-negotiable.
What emerges from IIJ’s presentation is a philosophy of precision over proliferation. There is no single press to solve every compliance challenge, nor a single ink that suits all substrates. Instead, the approach is modular, practical, and openly collaborative. Flexibility, in this context, is not a buzzword. It is a minimum requirement.
As packaging regulations tighten and product lifecycles shorten, suppliers who cannot recalibrate quickly will struggle to stay relevant. IIJ appears determined not to be among them. Its toolkit is built for uncertainty—and increasingly, that may prove its most valuable asset”.
By – Frazer Chesterman
For more information and to discuss the future of Packaging and implementing Inkjet for Packaging, in various sectors, contact the team via Nadina Using at nadinausing@industrialij.com
