us research and development in this area, has led to DiPaMat Legend White and Yellow inks for legend printing on PCB’s, that have become well-known and readily adopted in the meanwhile. This Agfa DiPaMat Legend inks set has now been extended with a dedicated Black legend inkjet ink and a White legend inkjet ink specifically for flexible applications.
Next steps digitization of the PCB production
As a next step in the digitization of the PCB production, UV-curable inkjet inks, which deliver cured layers that are resistant to acidic etching, have now become available. These inks are designed for the production of single layer PCB’s or inner-layers of multi-layer PCB’s. Agfa’s DiPaMat UV curable etch resistant inkjet inks can withstand ferric chloride and copper chloride etching and are caustic strippable. As such, they can perfectly replace the current etch and strip lines.
Benefits of going digital
The assets of digital printing using the UV-curable etch resistant inks are obviously relevant to PCB production: no time-consuming film production and no film exposure step. Equivalent to digital legend inks, the more general advantages of digital print also apply to etch resist inks: faster turnarounds, extremely high flexibility and productivity, reduced floor space and less manual labor, all ultimately leading to cost saving as well. With inkjet printing the images are generated on the fly, allowing for dynamic imaging.
Since digital printing is an additive process, fewer raw materials are used, consequently causing less waste.
New markets explored
Agfa’s DiPaMat Etch Resist inks are designed as part of the Agfa portfolio of functional inkjet inks for the PCB market. However, the this same technology is also used in non-PCB applications where acidic etching and caustic stripping are also used: manufacturing of etched products for photochemical machining: name tags, flexible dies and other chemically milled objects in general because DiPaMat Etch Resist inks not only apply on copper but also on (stainless) steels, brass and aluminum.
This allows for digitally powered, image based chemical etching of metals in a market that benefits the most from a digital approach for mass customization.
Visit Agfa at InPrint (11/10-12) and Productronica (11/10-13), which both can be visited in Munich