Epson Entering Partnership with a Startup

Epson Partners with Startup to supply inkjet printheads to Elephantech. As agreed, Epson will supply inkjet printheads to Elephantech.

Elephantech is a startup that manufactures and sells flexible printed circuits (FPC) manufactured using inkjet printing and electroless copper plating. The company uses a proprietary manufacturing method (Japan patent no. 6300213) in which metal materials are printed only on the required areas of a board surface and then grown using plating technology. This method, which is shorter than a conventional lithographic FPC production process, offers benefits in the form of lower environmental impacts, lower manufacturing costs, and shorter lead-times.

One of Epson’s strategies under its Epson 25 Corporate Vision is to accelerate growth by taking maximum advantage of its existing assets and by engaging in collaboration and open innovation. In inkjet, Epson is seeking more open innovation opportunities and is expanding external sales of printheads based on its PrecisionCore technology. The partnership with Elephantech, which has a large potential customer base, is a specific example of this. Epson expects the collaborative partnership with Elephantech to accelerate the use of inkjet printheads in industrial applications such as printed electronics, a priority area for Epson. Moving forward, Epson will create new markets by aggressively pursuing opportunities to provide inkjet printheads and related information for a wider range of printing applications.

Elephantech, with funding from Epson, is on a mission to make the world sustainable with new manufacturing technologies. Toward this end, it is expanding its inkjet-printed FPC manufacturing operations and creating markets by developing a broader range of applications for its technology, such as technology for forming wiring patterns on 3D plastic objects and the printing of biomaterials.

The investment of capital in Elephantech will have a negligible effect on Epson’s financial results.