TheIJC, the world’s largest inkjet event, has announced the inaugural US edition to take place on April 12-13, 2018 in The Westin O’Hare hotel in Chicago. With more than 40% of the exhibition space already booked, the organizers are looking forward to bringing a mix of technical and educational presentations, as well as networking opportunities, to America. More than 300 attendees are expected: OEMs, suppliers, developers, engineers, chemists, researchers and brand owners.
 
TheIJC has been developed by the European Specialist Printing Manufactures Association (ESMA) and Digital Direct Technologies in partnership with drupa, the No. 1 worldwide exhibition for printing technologies. The first European edition was launched in 2014, and since then the conference has experienced continuous growth in both individual attendees and the number of companies who come to learn and network about the advances in industrial inkjet.
 
“TheIJC had to build its reputation but it proved very quickly that the ‘platform’ concept worked very well – it combined the networking arena populated by exhibitor tabletops with two presentation tracks. The number of exhibitors and delegates has grown over the years, and the current European edition will feature three presentation tracks and 80 exhibitor stands. Now approaching 500 participants, we are prepared for the expansion of the concept. They key strength of the conference remains the education about all aspects of inkjet technology combined with excellent networking and business opportunities,” said Peter Buttiens, CEO of ESMA.
 
Attendees to TheIJC US can expect expert presentations – from both industry and academia – that explore how inkjet technology affects the manufacturing processes of today and tomorrow. “For inkjet engineering and inkjet chemistry, it’s TheIJC,” said Steve Knight, co-founder of TheIJC. “We aim to broaden the understanding of the wide range of topics that make up inkjet and our guidelines to exhibitors are to cover a technical topic to an audience of a different technical or scientific background. We will hear about the latest printhead developments, about ink components and finished ink, lab equipment for measurement and analysis, curing and drying systems, software electronics and integration, vision systems for inspection and verification of digitally printed images. It is really a wide focus at TheIJC. As manufacturing industries from packaging through to 3D printing adopt inkjet, the requirements to understand the core technology become paramount to the successful implementation of this disruptive technology.”