At the official launch on 17 November of Lumoza, a joint spin-off from Belgium's Hasselt University, major nanotechnology research institute IMEC and screen printing company Artist Screen, it was announced that Koenig & Bauer AG (KBA) had been chosen as the technology partner for print.

The new company specialises in large-format screen-printed electronics for novel forms of advertising and luxury goods etc. Potential applications include wafer-thin, luminous animated billboards or DVD covers that display special light effects in the dark. The effects, which are created by dielectric barrier layers between the individually applied inks, open up new perspectives in product marketing and presentation for both indoor and outdoor advertising and the packaging industry. Not only that, they support a totally new genre of printed product.

The various players involved, among them professors at Hasselt University, had approached KBA at the early stages of Lumoza's gestation. Always keen to build on its prowess in packaging press technology and expand from print, its traditional power base, into new lines of business offering sound potential for growth, KBA seized the opportunity to join forces with the ground-breaking companies engaged in the Lumoza project. Their aim is to promote cross-platform research to create previously unimaginable products. Negotiations are already well advanced for a sheetfed offset press custom-engineered to meet Lumoza's specific needs.