11.13.2023
At the opening of the Productronica international trade fair in Munich (Germany), MGI Digital Technology and Altix announce a strategic technological partnership, and the launch of the AltiJet, an industrial inkjet production press dedicated to the printed circuit board market.
This digital press, designed to apply Solder Mask and Etch Resist, is a genuine breakthrough innovation in a market largely dominated by conventional processes.
Printed circuit boards: the transition to digital inkjet
Printed circuit board production is a complex industrial process, involving numerous manufacturing stages and using technologies that have remained virtually unchanged over the last few years.
The solution developed by MGI and Altix considerably simplifies this process. The benefits for customers are manifold: shorter cycle times, savings in labor and energy, and significant reductions in chemical consumption and pollutant emissions.
Altix brings its expertise in printed circuit boards, and MGI its expertise in inkjet print engines and consumables for printed electronics. With this solution, the PCB industry will be able to begin its transition to digital, just as the graphic arts and printing industries did some twenty years ago.
MGI Digital Technology and Altix: strong industrial and strategic synergies
The partnership announced between MGI Digital Technology and Altix, initiated two years ago now, was a natural fit for Edmond Abergel, President of MGI Digital Technology: “Since 1982, MGI has developed by offering the printing and packaging market successive breakthrough innovations, with 100% digital production technologies. The culmination of this approach is the AlphaJET, the very first 5.0 digital 100% printing plant on the market. When we looked at related markets where our know-how in supporting industrial digital transition could be immediately applied, printed circuit board production immediately stood out. The meeting with Altix, a major French player in the PCB market, was a natural one, and the very similar DNAs of our two companies immediately led us to envisage joint developments”.
This cultural and industrial complementarity is unique on the market, as Jérôme Van Straaten, CEO of Altix, explains: “Between Altix’s 30 years of perfect knowledge of the PCB market and the excellence of its software and hardware equipment sold worldwide, and MGI’s expertise in industrial inkjet printing solutions and related consumables, there is total synergy between our two companies. In this respect, the joint development of the AltiJet, our very first solder Mask and Etch Resist digital inkjet press, unique in its concept and unveiled at Productronica, is the best symbol”.