On September 22, InPhocal, a technology company headquartered in Eindhoven, the Netherlands, announced that the company had successfully obtained a new round of financing of 2 million euros. This round of financing is led by venture capital funds DeepTechXL, TechInvest and the Netherlands Northern Brabant Provincial Development Agency (BOM).
InPhocal said that it would use the financing obtained in this round to increase its production of machinery and equipment in Breda, the southern Netherlands, and install equipment on the production lines of its global customers.
InPhocal was founded in 2019, before which it completed the construction project of HighTechXL deep technology venture capital. In this project, the innovative technology developed by inPhocal transforms the standard laser beam into a concentric circular beam with a central spot.
The company claims that it will use a "unique" laser beam technology to innovate laser processing. The laser beam developed by the company achieves longer focal length, faster printing speed and wider printing area. It is reported that InPhocal's laser beam can quickly mark on the surface, including fresh food, cans and bottles. At present, ordinary laser beams cannot do this well.
(Image source: inPhocal)
Robert van Tankeren, CEO of inPhocal, said: "By using our innovative optical technology, we enable food producers and packers to replace the heavily polluted ink technology with sustainable alternative methods. Our technology can make the existing laser process more efficient and be used for some applications that were difficult to achieve in the past, such as marking curved objects on the production line without sacrificing speed."
According to inPhocal, laser technology is still difficult to compete with ink technology in this regard, mainly because inkjet printing is much faster than laser. The current laser marking system can not mark the same area of surface as quickly as inkjet, one of the reasons is that the focusing time of the laser system is usually short. However, using ink-jet printing requires constant cleaning and maintenance of the equipment itself, and requires a lot of printing ink.
In order to solve the problems of speed and focus, inPhocal combines the optical technology developed by leading European research institutions with inPhocal's unique lens to design an advanced laser system that can produce a laser beam with a long focal length. Different from the situation when the standard laser beam loses focus quickly (sometimes within 1mm), this advanced laser system can maintain the distance of the focus point stably (400 times that of the traditional system), and can print on a wider operating surface.
(Image source: inPhocal)
Now, in the field of bottle packaging, inPhocal's technology is expected to replace the previous process of using inkjet stamping to identify the shelf life and two-dimensional code, which not only reduces waste and is more environmentally friendly, but also can help customers save time and money. The company also developed its own unique laser trademark technology for the agricultural product industry. Unlike inkjet marking, which is easy to fade, laser marking can directly mark agricultural products and produce irreversible marks.
InPhocal said: "Our laser beam can also focus to a smaller spot size than the existing technology, so that the wafer chip accuracy is higher. This can improve the chip output and help solve the current global chip shortage problem."
About inPhocal
InPhocal, founded in 2019, is a Dutch laser equipment leasing service company. Instead of selling laser systems, the company has proposed a unique business model, namely laser as a service (LAAS).
Customers do not need to invest a large amount of money to buy laser equipment, but they can rent the equipment by month. Dr. Martijn Boerkamp, chief technology officer of inPhocal, is a physicist with 15 years of experience in optical technology and applications. From the initial focus on the category of marking bottles with lasers to the current focus on every industry using lasers, inPhocal has won a wider and wider market in the laser field.
About DeepTechXL
DeepTechXL, together with partners ASML, Philips, PME Pension Fund, Invest NL, Brabantse Ontwikkelings Maatschappij (BOM), research institute TNO and several family offices, launched the DeepTechXL Fund I of 75 million euros in 2022. The fund also obtained a loan of 9 million euros from the RVO of the Dutch government, which was designated for early seed investment. The fund invests in promising Dutch deep technology start-ups and potential enterprises that are expanding in scale, and is headquartered in Eindhoven High tech Park, the Netherlands.
About BOM
The Brabant Development Agency (BOM) of the Netherlands helps start-ups committed to key technologies, a healthy future, climate neutral energy and sustainable food supply to obtain the necessary assistance and funds. It cooperates with dozens of enterprises every year to help them start and expand their scale and go global. The company is the executive agency of the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate Policy and the province of Brabant.
Source: OFweek
