Meteor Inkjet, a Cambridge, UK-based supplier of industrial inkjet printhead driving solutions, has received a King’s Award for Enterprise for Sustainable Development. One of 36 organisations in the UK recognised this year, the company was honoured for commercially successful products, services, and management that benefit the environment, society, and the economy.
Its technology is used to advance the implementation of inkjet in print and production industries worldwide, replacing less sustainable methods and enabling shorter production runs with zero overproduction. The award also recognises Meteor Inkjet’s commitment to conducting business in a socially responsible and ethical manner while minimising its own environmental impact.
Managing Director Clive Ayling said the award reflects a broader effort to integrate sustainability into the business. “This recognition reflects the journey we’ve been on to embed sustainability into every part of our business. From offsetting our carbon footprint to supporting our people and local community, we’ve worked hard to ensure that responsible, ethical practices guide our decisions every day as we enable the conversion of industry to more sustainable production using industrial inkjet. While we’re proud of the progress we’ve made, we see this as just the beginning and remain focused on continuous sustainable development.”
King’s Awards for Enterprise, now in their 60th year, recognise outstanding UK businesses. This is the second time Meteor Inkjet has received the accolade. In 2019, the company received a Queen’s Award for Enterprise for international trade. This year’s winners will attend a Royal Reception at St James’s Palace, while Meteor Inkjet will also celebrate with employees at its head office near Cambridge.
Headquartered in Cambridge, the inkjet technology supplier provides industrial inkjet printhead driving solutions to printhead manufacturers and print system builders. The company is a wholly owned subsidiary of Hybrid Software Group PLC, a Euronext-listed developer of enterprise software for industrial print manufacturing.
Inkjet gains ground in high-precision manufacturing
Recent work in electronics manufacturing has pushed inkjet into production steps where process efficiency and material control matter more than volume alone. Earlier this year, Electroninks and Manz Asia introduced a particle-free silver ink for semiconductor packaging, designed for selective metallization in 2.5D and 3D structures. Cured under 365 nm LED-UV light, the formulation removed masking and thermal curing from the workflow, cutting production steps while improving layer alignment. It also targeted applications such as electromagnetic interference shielding and antenna-on-package, where irregular surfaces and tight tolerances make conventional metallization more difficult.
Further advances have focused on the limits of conventional inkjet itself. Scrona and Avantama recently demonstrated perovskite quantum dot inks processed with electrohydrodynamic inkjet 3D printing at resolutions below 1 µm for MicroLED applications. That approach addressed two constraints at once: pixel sizes too small for standard inkjet processes and the difficulty of jetting thicker, more concentrated materials. In that work, optical density greater than 1 was achieved with a perovskite quantum dot layer below 2 µm, linking inkjet-based deposition to thinner layers, lower nozzle requirements, and faster production.
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Featured photo shows Meteor Inkjet electronics driving a digital printer for books. Photo via Meteor Inkjet.
