Toppan Printing Company recently participated in a field test of a disaster emergency system using e-paper displays at regular intervals in Tokyo streets. The goal was to assess the effectiveness of such a system to provide residents with disaster prevention and evacuation information should a catastrophic event, such as an earthquake occur. While such information signs are frequently touted as an ideal application for e-paper technology, in most cases, little is heard of real world examples. What is most noteworthy, however, is not the field test, but the continued success of Toppan Printing in the growing area of e-paper. Should the RR Donnelly’s of the world be taking notice?
Background of Innovation and Technological Expertise
Toppan Printing Limited Partnership, headquartered in Tokyo, Japan, was established by a group of former engineers from the Finance Ministry’s Printing Bureau in 1900 with the “aim to supply finely crafted printed materials at affordable prices using novel Western equipment.” At the time, the most advanced printing technology was letterpress. With the beginning of the new millennium, the $16 billion company expanded that goal “to supply society with products and services of the highest quality driven by the latest technology.” One of the most innovative strategies that the company has employed to achieve its success is to expand into new business fields and develop products to continue its advancement into the future.
Building on its core printing expertise, the company has had the foresight and the willingness to risk exploring new emerging industries such as printed electronics. At present, Toppan Printing is working on many facets of the new field including LCD color filters, printed circuit boards, and of course, e-paper- in the form of organic thin film transistors (OTFTs) as backplanes. Although the company would not cite specifics, they claim that the OTFTs are completely printed at resolutions higher than either screen or inkjet with high throughput-a target that firms developing printed electronics long to achieve.
E-paper History
Toppan Printing is not a newcomer in the e-paper space. It is believed to be the largest investor in E Ink and currently manufactures display screens using E Ink’s electrophoretic technology. Investing $5 million, it first entered into a strategic partnership with E Ink in 2001 to develop color electronic ink displays. It received the exclusive global rights to manufacture and supply color filters for electronic ink displays, as well as exclusive domestic marketing rights for POP applications for a limited time. The goal was to produce a high-quality e-paper display that could run off batteries in a mobile device. At the time, Toppan noted it considered Electronic Paper as a platform for strategic growth-new applications enabled by this technology were closely aligned with the company’s strategic priorities, the 3Es: electronics, e-business, and ecology.
The next year, Toppan invested an additional $25 million. The expanded partnership called for Toppan to manufacture front plane laminate (FPL) products for E Ink’s active matrix graphical displays business using electronic inks supplied by E Ink. In addition, Toppan become E Ink‘s distributor for the FPL to Japan-based TFT display makers.
Color E-Paper Display
In 2001, E Ink and Toppan Printing jointly announced that their engineers had built a full-color electronic paper display suitable for mass production. The prototype featured 12-bit color in a 400 x 300 pixel format with resolution of 83 pixels per inch using a custom color filter from Toppan. The color filter design had a high-brightness that preserves the paper-like whiteness of the background display while allowing deep reds for text and a range of colors and tones for images. The display diagonal was 6 inches, about the size of a paperback book.
While still involved in virtually all of E Inks projects, Toppan Forms also has a strategic alliance with SiPix to license SiPix’s technology to Toppan Forms to produce electronic paper modules using SiPix film and will also grant exclusive production rights of e-paper modules in Japan.
The morale of the story is that diversification can be the key to success for any business and the same holds for printers. Granted, Toppan Printing is a large firm that had the resources to develop the new technologies to enable them to print electronics. However, more importantly, it also had the foresight to look to a future where traditional printing would not be enough to grow, or even sustain the company’s business. It was willing to take a risk and explore new emerging markets even though it involved taking risks. The payoff has been the ability to ensure Toppan’s growth for the future.
By Linda M. Casatelli
e-ink, print, toppan
This is by far the first public exhibition of an e-paper device that has a large-sized screen. I’m impressed!