Printing on a sport shoe with a robot-based inkjet printer was one of the highlights at the InPrint 2016, the exhibition for industrial print technology, from 15th to 17th of November in Milan, Italy.
In cooperation with Ardeje, PROFACTOR presented an inkjet printer prototype for printing on curved surfaces supported by a robot.
The capability of the robot assisted printing on 3D objects was demonstrated with printing of a green grass design on sport shoes with ink receptive 3D Haptic coatings provided by the Chinese company HUAFENG. Perfectly programmed by PROFACTOR Engineers, the robot made the job with high reliability and repeatability. For many visitor, the demonstration was the most impressive innovation presented at the InPrint show 2016.
The prototyp was developed in the addmanu project
PROFACTOR (robotics, process development) and TIGER Coatings (ink) are together developing the robot assisted printing system in a ongoing national funded project. addmanu is a national flag ship project for research, development and the establishment of additive manufacturing with more than 20 partners from universities and industry. Apart from the project, ARDEJE developed the inkjet printing engine.
