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Conductive Ink Markets 2017-2027: Forecasts, Technologies, PlayersLONDON, July 17, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Ten-year market forecasts segmented by applications and materials, critical application and technology appraisals, company profiles In search of the next big thing The conductive ink industry is still in search of the next big thing. Adverse competitive pressures in core volume markets has led most suppliers to seek new nascent opportunities. The prevalent strategy is now to have as broad a product portfolio as possible, seeding multiple nascent markets, garnering as much customer feedback as possible, and establishing value networks early on. Suppliers also now intensely watch one another, rapidly launching comparable products which results in an erosion of differentiation. This puts suppliers in a bind: on the one hand, they want to keep technologies secret for long to perfect them in-house, but, on the other hand, they must take it to the market early because they crave customer feedback in new markets where neither the figures-of-merit nor customer needs are well known. Despite all this, the industry has identified multiple emerging applications areas in the 2013-2016 period as it seeks to rejuvenate itself. Changing business landscape The volume photovoltaic market will do well in the first half of 2017 thanks to the looming end of feed-in-tariff in China. This will spell good news for paste and powder suppliers, however the industry will remain concerned that it may reach peak silver consumption soon in this highly cost competitive market that sees only incremental innovation. The touch screen edge electrode market continues to be shaped by the perennial trend to narrow the bezel. This trend has already led to the introduction of new photo-patterned and laser-cut pastes to achieve L/S of 20/20. Such ink innovations have so far enabled printing to stay competitive, but the industry remains concerned here too that sputtering will become even more of a threat in the coming years as the L/S shrinks further. New growth opportunities emerge The behind-the-scenes interest in in-mold electronics (IME) remains robust. In fact the industry is on the cusp of success after several false starts. The first wave of products are close to market launch, the value networks are being enhanced, and the volume manufacturers are more engaged than ever. The number of stretchable pastes keeps on increasing. Two years or so ago only a few suppliers offered such inks but in the past quarter alone we have interacted with at least ten suppliers. More ink-based e-textile products are being launched but volumes remain small and the value chain weak. The industry however has increasing momentum as it searches for its first major success story. Aerosol and other non-contact printing processes are now a major contender for printing antennas and other conductive traces on 3D objects. The production capacity now exists, particularly in Asia and many material suppliers have qualified their products with these process. Commercial progress is set continue here. EMI shielding is emerging as new area of interest. We expect the number of chips with conformal EMI shielding coatings on consumer electronics to rapidly increase. The competition will be between sputtering and ink spraying, and within inks the competition will be on particle size with nano inks offering thinness whilst others offer lower costs. Directly printed metal mesh films with linewidths below 5um are now possible, although most prototypes still in the pilot phase. Nonetheless, they represent a long-term risk to other metal mesh processes in an increasingly cost-sensitive industry. Several silver nanoparticle TCF technologies have lost commercial momentum, but new novel ones are emerging to take their place. Hybrid solutions also continue with their stop-start commercial progress. In the automotive industry applications such as printed seat occupancy sensors, printed capacitive sensors for infotainments modules, and seat heaters will largely continue their progress. The efforts to develop and commercially print window de-foggers on polycarbonate substrates will also intensify, whilst printed metal mesh for window de-foggers will appear on the early-stage technology roadmap of major OEMs. 3D printed electronics (3DPE) remains an innovation opportunity front. The number of dedicated 3DPE printers is set to rise whilst ink suppliers will develop low-temperature inks compatible with a variety of substrates. Hobbyist/DIY PCB printers will see diminished interest as the buzz dissipates, whilst printers aimed at the professional end of the market slowly will penetrate the market. The seed-and-plate PCB approach will become more technologically mature but will struggle to find a sufficient cost advantage to force a widespread switch. Printed large-area piezoresistive, capacitive and biosensors are set to become one of the largest constituents of the greater printed electronics industry. Here, inks will be used as printed bus bars and interconnects. Despite technology improvements, printed transistor and memory will remain in search of applications. Special formulations for printed backplane interconnects on flexible e-readers and flexible displays will see small boom in the short- to medium-term. Large-area LED arrays made with printing will slowly find their way into the market although competition from FPCB remains whilst the primary challenge will be developing and selling end lighting products. There are numerous other applications that are being developed for conductive paste which we consider in our report in detail. Examples include heating, battery pack and plant heaters, frequency-selective windows, and many more. Nobody wants to be left behind These markets however represent the future growth opportunities. Indeed, as shown below, IDTechEx Research forecasts that these emerging sectors will grow to nearly become a $400m market opportunity by 2027. The ship is sailing now and nobody wants to be left behind. This is why companies are now allocating resources, iterating formulations, and development commercial ecosystems. This is why the conductive ink business has come alive again. Download the full report: https://www.reportbuyer.com/product/4727849/ About Reportbuyer Reportbuyer is a leading industry intelligence solution that provides all market research reports from top publishers http://www.reportbuyer.com For more information: Sarah Smith Research Advisor at Reportbuyer.com Email: [email protected] Tel: +44 208 816 85 48 Website: www.reportbuyer.com View original content:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/conductive-ink-markets-2017-2027-forecasts-technologies-players-300489533.html SOURCE ReportBuyer 
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