AUTOTYPE - A VIEW TO THE FUTURE
09 March 2000 - Autotype International

Our other major focus, of which Autotype is becoming increasingly an industry standard, is hard coated films for membrane touch switches, touchscreens, in-mold decoration and special optical, micro-replicated surface structures.

We are in close contact with the users of our products, the issues in their business and we apply technology to provide business enhancing solutions for those users. “Technology solutions” is a phrase that epitomises our ambitions.

Autotype will be 132 years old in the millennium and has evolved from a producer of fine art prints, to a position today as a world leading supplier of high technology products for a wide range of industry sectors.

The pace of change has accelerated throughout that history and the last 10 years have seen the company expand its market and product base into electronics, automotive, telecommunications and speciality print substrate media. Our philosophy has always been “evolution, not revolution”, but now the rate of change begins to blur that distinction.

Our film coating capability provides us with a far wider range of opportunities than ever before. The key to our success in the next century will be to make sure that we establish these clear priorities now:

Innovation - We must expand the opportunities for our customers by delivering innovative products that enable new processes, widen design horizons and add more value to what our customers do. In particular, we must help our customers in the traditional printing markets to bridge the chasm into digital printing and expand the range of opportunities open to those who have already made this move.
Quality - We must support our customers with ever improving product quality.
Environment - We must strive to ensure that our net effect on the environment is a positive one.

Innovation
The industry trend to UV inks has created new challenges for the screen stencil. The ink deposit now needs to be both low and extremely consistent across the stencil and from stencil to stencil. Autotype Capillex CD, or critical deposit film, takes the screen stencil to new levels with outstanding print resolution, very consistent and low ink deposit, typically 3 to 4 microns, and exceptional stencil life for long runs. We continue to work with key user groups to develop optimal solutions for their applications based on the control of the finished stencil that only a factory coated stencil film can deliver. Autotype continues to develop new chemistry systems and screen emulsions which build on our leading position in environmental improvement in screenprinting and in screen stencil making.

In hard coated film technology an emerging innovation is In-Mold Decoration, or IMD. In this process, a film is back printed, usually by screen printing, formed using heat and pressure and finally back filled with resin to create a three dimensional part, bringing screenprinting into three dimensions. The many benefits include cost savings in manufacture, flexibility in design and in allowing custom manufacturing variants. Autotype's unique innovations in hard coated films allow their use for in-mold decoration dramatically enhancing the durability of IMD parts due to their scratch and solvent resistant surfaces and the encapsulation of the graphics.

The future of hardcoated films also includes new robust hard coated films for long term outdoor applications, and developments in microreplication which will introduce a whole new range of cost effective functional surfaces for films. Micro-replication films will truly change the way films are seen!

Quality
The year 2000 will see the commissioning of a major new coating line at the Autotype headquarters in Wantage. This new line will allow our most quality critical products to be segregated onto a single ultra-high specification machine. The clean areas of the machine will meet the Class 100. The control of product quality will be further enhanced by the latest in lacquer delivery, coating and drying systems. Advanced test equipment will improve our ability to quantify quality and performance.

Environment
Equally important to us is our commitment through our ISO14001 Environmental Management accreditation to minimize the environmental impact of our activities. To date we have a blemish free record on compliance to this standard, but we can never relax, as the requirements become ever tighter.

Beyond our manufacturing activities we seek to ensure that our products contribute towards reduced environmental impact throughout their lifecycle, by improving the efficiency of our customers processes and by ensuring that the finished articles can be cost effectively recycled. New Autotype products will help our customers to develop the use of VOC free processes by digital printing methods or UV cured inks. Our new products for in-mold decoration reduce the need for wasteful spray coating, and eliminate several process stages yielding enhanced efficiency.

The Future
Autotype sees the future as an exciting place full of opportunities. We believe that we have both the technologies and the skilled people to ensure that we bring new opportunities for growth and improved efficiency to the users of our products in the years ahead. The millennium holds many more opportunities for Autotype and for our customers than we could have thought possible only 10 years ago. We will make sure that we continue to work in close partnership with our customers, suppliers and co-suppliers because alone we may have potential, but only together can we realize these opportunities.

http://www.autotype.com

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