Conference Program
Tuesday, September 19, 2023
9:00am
Welcoming remarks
Kurt Fischer, Technical Conference Management
Speaker's Bio: Kurt Fischer
Studied technical chemistry at the University of Technology Vienna. Diploma work and doctoral theses: “Biotechnological Processes for Pulp and Paper Manufacture”.
1992- 1993:
University of Wisconsin and Forest Products Laboratory in Madison, Wisconsin, USA, as Research Scientist.
1993 – 2000:
Krems Chemie AG in Krems, Austria, manager of research and development for paper chemicals and natural resins.
1998 – 1999:
Deputy chairman of the technical committee of the hydrocarbon and rosin resin producers association at CEFIC in Brussels.
Since January 2000:
Founder and managing director of Technical Conference Management KG in Langenzersdorf, Austria.
Numerous publications, several of which are original papers in peer reviewed journals.
Co-author of 2 books and 3 technical manuscripts.
Presentations at conferences in Europe, USA and Asia.
Several patents and patent applications.
9:05am
Michael Riffel, Afry
Speaker's Bio: Michael Riffel
Michael’s product focus is on wood-based panels and decorative surfacing materials, especially paper-based surfaces in Europe and China, having spent 12 months in the country. His work focus is on economic and demand analysis, scenario planning, cost competitiveness and modelling as well as due diligence projects. Michael has a M.Sc. in Industrial Engineering and Management, Hochschule Mannheim Germany and Tongji University in Shanghai, China and a B.Eng. in wood technology, Rosenheim Germany.
10:00am
Speaker's Bio: Peter Lantz
Experienced Materials Manager with a demonstrated history of working in the furniture industry. Skilled in Negotiation, Operations Management, Value Stream Mapping, International Business, and Quality Management. Strong engineering professional graduated from Fågelviksskolan in Tibro.
Responsible for being part of creating new capabilities within the Product Management area. Work with enable optimized customer & production driven product development by providing and governing a business structure that sets the framework for developing IKEA products and services sellable in all touchpoints.
10:30am
11:00am
11:30am
Speaker's Bio: Clarissa Blüm
Clarissa Blüm has been working as a specialist for the “Colour Road” trend service in Corporate Design Management at RENOLIT SE, one of the world’s leading plastic products manufacturers, since 2020.
She is responsible for the conception and implementation of trend materials. Clarissa presents Colour Road at trade fairs and congresses as well as on the RENOLIT website and in social media for both RENOLIT Interior Surfaces and RENOLIT Exterior Solutions.
She is also an adviser to international customers and licensees such as Lifocolor.
She was born in 1995. After finishing her apprenticeship as an industrial clerk at RENOLIT SE she initially worked as an assistant to the Corporate Design Management. In June 2020, she was certified as a “Colour Road” brand ambassador.
noon
Five Years of Mass Digital Printing for LVT Flooring: Learnings and New Opportunities
Speaker's Bio: Thorsten Beinke
Thorsten Beinke received vocational training as a carpenter and media designer. He is holding a bachelor in media economics from Fachhochschule des Mittelstands, Bielefeld.
From his nearly 35 years’ experience in product- and print-design, Thorsten spend half of it in the flooring business. His functional experience includes all fields in design from print, web to packaging or display. He also worked in sales, marketing and training. Before he joined the flooring industry, Thorsten worked for major companies in telecommunication, advertising and printing.
His employment history (flooring companies) is as follows:
Tarkett GDL S.A., Lentzweiler, Luxembourg, 2011 to present.
Senior design manager
Responsible for LVT and laminate products as well as in-house design development for future digital printing.
Witex Flooring, Augustdorf, Germany, 2005-2011
Creative director
Responsible for communication design, advertising and customer focused retail projects including point of sale presentation and training.
Terhürne, Südlohn, Germany, 2003-2005
Head of advertising
Responsible for communication design and advertising.
12:30pm
1:30pm
Pol Merino, Honext
Speaker's Bio: Pol Merino
ol is managing the Honext team on a daily basis, while leading the implementation of the international expansion strategy following circular economy principles and finding synergies with local industries.
He aims for Honext to become a transformative platform that accelerates the transition to the circular economy to shift the current negative impact of the built environment to a net positive one, all through innovation and biotech.
Pol holds a BSc in Biotechnology and has rich and successful international experiences of leading business development and establishing networks in the biotech and pharmaceutical industry, among others developing the Azbil Telstar sales network in Asia Pacific.
2:00pm
Speaker's Bio: Moritz Menier
After his Bachelor and Master in addition to his DBA studies Moritz Menier, is working since over 10 years in the woodworking industry. As a start of his career he was working as a VP of Sales and later CEO of the BMK Group, the largest independent paper impregnation company worldwide. The responsibilities included global sales and purchasing as well as lead responsibility of North America plant.
Mr. Menier served under his previous employment globally. Involved in nearly all laminate and furniture production facilities with melamine papers, especially focused on North and South American market.
As of January 1st he joined the Classen Group, one of the leading manufacturers of laminate flooring, Ceramin (Non-PVC Floor) and doors with over 2.000 employees worldwide and manufacturing sites in Germany and Poland. As a Vice President Strategic Business Development Mr. Menier is responsible to extend the footprint of the Classen Group in North America and develop new concepts in the market.
2:30pm
Speaker's Bio: Naci Güngör
Mr. Naci Güngör holds a mechanical engineering degree from Middle East Technical University and an M.B.A. degree from Bilkent University. He has an experience of over 30 years in the wood based panel industry and worked for 12 years as marketing and corporate communications manager at Kastamonu Entegre, which is among the top 5 producers globally. He then joined in 2018 Boyut Edgeband company, a member of Alim Group, as director of marketing and corporate communications.
He acted between 2015-2021 as a member of the Forestry Products Consultative Committee in FAO of United Nations, between 2012-2014 as Board Member of Wood Products Exporters Association in Istanbul and still a member of Foreign Economic Relations Board (DEIK) Business Council Executive Committee.
3:00pm
3:30pm
MFoil Range – The Impact of Pre-impregnated Papers on Surface Materials
Speaker's Bio: Andrea Mühlbauer
After her Master’s Degree in Chemistry, Andrea made her PhD thesis as a co-tutelle project at the University of Regensburg (Germany) and the University of Lille (France) in the field of cellulose solubilization with environmentally friendly solvents.
In 2015, she started as R&D Engineer at the Munksjö R&D Center in Apprieu (France) leading product development projects for decor and pre-impregnated papers.
Since 2021, Andrea has taken the position of Product Manager for pre-impregnated paper.
4:00pm
4:30pm
Introduction to UV Cured Powder Coatings, and their Carbon, Environmental and Sustainability Advantages
Evan Knoblauch, Keyland Polymer
Speaker's Bio: Mike Knoblauch
Evan Knoblauch is the European Business Development Manager for Keyland Polymer Materials Sciences, a global leader in the development, formulation, and manufacturing of UV-cured powder coatings and solid resins. Based out of Barcelona, Evan educates the market about UV curable solid materials and assists customers in finding coating solutions for products that are heat sensitive or difficult to finish like woods, plastics, composites, and carbon fiber. He holds a BA in Economics from Denison University.
5:00pm
Wednesday, September 20, 2023
9:00am
Speaker's Bio: Mike Horsten
Mike Horsten is the Global Business Manager InterioJet and Head of Textiles at Agfa NV. He and his team support the Business Development and Channel Marketing for interior decoration projects like flooring and surfaces and the development of textiles for the sign and fashion industries
Mike has over 35 years of profound business management experience in the digital print (sign and textiles), finishing, workflow and rip software, travel (aviation) and industrial/commercial industries.
Prior to this role, Mike worked as the Business Manager for HP’s Large Format Graphics Production Division responsible for the HP Latex and HP Stitch product lines in EMEA. Mike joined HP from Mimaki Europe B.V. in 2017, where he held various executive positions including General Manager Marketing EMEA.
Mike was at the forefront of creating a better and greener world for the production of Sign and Graphics and Textiles, helping in the development of greener technologies for digital printing of textile and wining Sustainability and Corporate Social Responsibility awards in 2002-03.
Mike studied Mass Communications at Emerson College in Boston.
9:30am
Scanning Workflows for Raw Materials and Decor Products
Massimo Colagrande, Metis
10:00am
Color, Textures, Gloss, from Proof to Production
Speaker's Bio: Stefan Höfs
Stefan Höfs, born in 1975, started his professional career in the graphic arts industry in 2006, as service manager at BRS GmbH, a dealer for digital large format printers. 2011 he became product Specialist at Roland DG Germany, where, in cooperation with CGS Publishing International GmbH, he introduced solvent and UV printers as proofing solution in the packaging market. In the following years he took also care of the decorative surfaces market, where he introduced proofing solutions for textures and print on décor paper with special décor inks. 2018 Stefan Höfs became business development manager at Roland DG EMEA, where he was responsible for the industrial sector. His focus during this period was establishing UV flatbed-printers as digital alternative for pad- and screen printing. Also, during this time, he was still connected to the surfacing industry, as speaker for proofing solutions on several congresses. In 2023 he started his new position as business development manager at CGS Publishing International GmbH.
10:30am
11:00am
Frank de Jonge, Neos
Speaker's Bio: Frank de Jonge
My career is dedicated to human and environmental well-being. Circular economy, CO2-reduction, renewable energy, energy efficiency are as important as resource-optimization and selecting the least harmful processes and material for health, life and well-being. Inkjet printing in industrial scale is my passion. Driving new applications in co-operation between end-user, substrate-manufacturer and printer integrator is the future of the printing market. Guiding and supporting the innovators in the printing industry is my speciality.
My career started at Olympia, where I started as junior product manager for one of the first Laserpointer launched to the European market. I had the opportunity to sell inks and toner from global leaders like Mitsubishi Chemicals, Toshiba, Hitachi and Sensient to a broad number of challenging and exiting digital printing applications from desktop to industrial scale. I managed development and production of inks for industrial printing applications ie. high speed single pass with water-based inks. The highly efficient dryers from adphos ensure reliable evaporation of water and solvents from any printing and coating application.
11:30am
Realities of Image Definition and Perception
Changlong Sun, Ricoh
Speaker's Bio: Duncan Ross
2004-PhD: Department of Colour and Polymer Chemistry at the University of Leeds, Title: Characterisation of ink transfer media for Lithographic printing process
2007- Inkjet Technologist: Digital Print CIC at the University of Leeds, Worked on Inkjet application and development projects
2008-Project Manager: Crown Packaging. Inkjet printing for metal packaging application and its colour management
2014- Technical Support Manager: Ricoh UK Products Ltd. Print head Sales and customer support.
2019- Inkjet Strategic Business Development Manager: Ricoh Europe
noon
Soft-Proofing: The Advantage of Foresight
Speaker's Bio: Duncan Ross
Duncan graduated from the Universities of Wolverhampton and Reutlingen University of Applied Sciences in 1994, with BA Honors in European Business Administration and German. After working in the gravure and decorative printing industry for three years, Duncan joined the growing software company AVA CAD CAM in 1998. Initially providing technical support to the Northern European market, he was promoted to Global Sales Manager in 2004 and then to Commercial Director in 2012. AVA CAD CAM provides design and colour solutions, support and workflow consultancy to the décor, flooring, wallcovering and textile industries.
12:30pm
1:30pm
Successful Implementation of Color Matching for Digital Printing of Edges at Egger in Brilon
Bernd Bergmann, IPAC
Speaker's Bio: Bernd Bergmann
EDUCATION: UNIVERSITY HANNOVER GERMANY – DIPLOM INGENIEUR ELEKTROTECHNIK
Electrical Engineering with focus on Image Processing, Pattern Recognition and Knowledge Engineering
EXPERIENCE: GROUP MANAGER VISION SYSTEMS, GRECON 1995 – 1998
Developing vision systems for the solid timber industry & wood based panel industry.
MANAGER SCANTEC, GRECON 1998 – 2007
Responsibility for the development, sales and service of stress grading machines for the solid timber industry and the development of surface inspections systems for the wood based panel industry.
HEAD OF R&D, GRECON 2007 – 2019
Responsibility for the development of the complete range of measurement, vision and X-Ray products of Fagus-GreCon
TECHNICAL DIRECTOR, IPAC 2020 –
2:00pm
2:30pm
Speaker's Bio: Nadina Using
As part the Sales Team of IIJ for the last 9 years Nadina Using has been at the forefront of highly technical projects across market sectors including everything from narrow web Labels to Industrial scale projects. A recent move into Marketing with years of Sales background enables her to understand the needs of both her team and the customer.
3:00pm
The technical program will be stablished by December 2024. Please contact us if you would like to speak in Vienna.
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