Sublime printing
Sheffield business Octi-Tech Ltd specialises in decorative systems, developing the technology and equipment for printing onto all sorts of products and surfaces. The company had developed a new system to decorate complex 3D surfaces – such as dimpled tiles or sculpted skirting boards – but were struggling to get the quality of image they needed.
Managing Director Paul Hirst explains: “The process prints the image onto a polymer film which then moulds to the surface of the product and transfers the image across. The films we had didn’t work well enough, but we were struggling to find anyone to help us develop a new one, until we came across the Polymer Centre at the University of Sheffield.”
The Polymer Centre directed them to spin-out company, FaraPack Polymers Ltd, which was set up to help companies needing research expertise on short-term projects, such as engineering problems, technology issues or new product development. They also helped the company gain a Yorkshire Forward Innovation Voucher, which covered the costs of the initial research.
FaraPack’s specialism is developing new and bespoke polymers which made them the ideal partner for Octi-Tech, as Operations Manager at FaraPack, Chris Saywell explains: “Transferring the image from the film to the object involved interactions between nano-sized particles in the film coating and the inks. We worked on a new coating for the film to increase the dye transfer to as close to 100 percent as possible.”
The FaraPack team tested options for different coatings in the lab until a prototype was developed. Then FaraPack sourced a company able to produce the film to full scale. The whole process took three months and the result was a film which enables high quality image transfer, allowing Octi-Tech to launch their new system. Paul Hirst doesn’t claim to understand the science, but is very glad to have found the solution.
“We didn’t think of it as a nanotechnology problem – just as polymer film that needed a new coating on it,” he said. “ We’re now working with FaraPack on other projects as well, and the collaboration looks set to continue.”
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