KELENN Technology: Innovation Without Boundaries

This article is inspired by a FuturePrint Podcast interview with KELENN Technology’s CEO Didier Rousseau and Head of KT Labs Anaïs Bianchi. To listen to the podcast click here, or on the graphic in this article.

KELENN Technology has emerged as one of Europe’s most complete inkjet development specialists. From chemistry and materials to electronics, software, and process integration, the company brings together every element required to take digital printing from idea to industrial scale.

Led by CEO Didier Rousseau and Head of KT Labs Anaïs Bianchi, KELENN reflects a uniquely integrated approach—where scientific rigour meets practical engineering. Inside the company’s KT Labs, chemists, physicists, and engineers collaborate across disciplines to refine inks, optimise printheads, and design the hardware that brings those ideas to life. It is a structure that feels more like a research institute than a traditional equipment manufacturer.

Click on the image to listen to the podcast interview.

That depth of capability also makes KELENN stand out. Speaking on the FuturePrint Podcast, Rousseau and Bianchi offered an insight into how KELENN is translating that ethos into a growing portfolio of breakthrough technologies—ranging from sustainable water-based inks and high-performance drive electronics to structural 3D printed electronics and direct-to-shape systems.

At the centre of KELENN’s growth is KT Labs, a research hub Bianchi describes as “transversal”—an environment where chemistry, electronics, mechanics, and optics work side by side. “Our duty is to make progress in R&D and to increase the internal capabilities of KT,” she explains. In practice, this means the lab doesn’t just develop new processes and inks; it enables collaboration across disciplines so that innovation can move swiftly from concept to industrial reality.

Rousseau elaborates: “Having this lab inside the company means everyone works together efficiently. R&D is not easy to manage in an orderly way. But when chemistry and electronics teams sit together, problems get solved faster.”

This holistic approach helps explain why KELENN has earned a reputation as a “one-stop shop” for inkjet innovation. The company develops everything related to inkjet—hardware, software, and materials—so that each component can be optimised in context rather than isolation. “Inkjet is a complex process,” Rousseau says. “To do it properly, you must understand post-processing, pre-processing, viscosity, compatibility with substrates, sintering, drying, and curing. By developing all these technologies, we can offer customers whatever they need—whether it’s a new drive electronics board, software, or a full printer.”

After years of research, KELENN’s technologies are now mature enough for widespread adoption. “We’ve developed a lot of different technologies, and now they are ready to be delivered to the market,” Bianchi notes. Among these are direct-to-shape (DTS) printing, printed electronics—including 3D structural electronics—and a new generation of water-based inks designed to replace UV systems.

Europe’s regulatory momentum away from UV inks has accelerated the search for alternatives. “We’re going to ban almost everywhere UV ink because of the CMR,” Rousseau explains. Solvent-based inks are also becoming harder to justify under new environmental requirements. Water-based systems, therefore, represent a crucial breakthrough—but only if they can match the performance of UV. “The key challenge is ensuring adhesion and scratch resistance,” Rousseau says. “Through our partnerships with ink manufacturers, we’re developing new processes that make water-based inks perform reliably. The scratch resistance and adhesion are excellent, and we’re matching market requirements while keeping the energy cost of drying low.”

Another of KELENN’s strengths lies in drive electronics—the precision systems that control inkjet heads. Rousseau says the company’s latest generation of boards and software offer superior flexibility, enabling seamless integration into customer systems. “Our architecture is so flexible that beginning next year, we’ll disclose very interesting innovations,” he reveals. “We’ll make it easier for customers to start printing with utmost reliability—no missing jets, no uncertainty.”

If there is one area that encapsulates KELENN’s boundary-pushing ethos, it is 3D structural printed electronics. Bianchi has been working on printed electronics for over eight years, evolving from flat and flexible substrates to three-dimensional surfaces. “This has a lot of interest in defence, automotive, and molded plastics,” she says. “We can add functionality to parts that previously had none or even replace PCBs altogether.”

To achieve this, KELENN combines robotics and Cartesian systems in a fully automated platform. “We can print parts using FDM, add functional lines or surfaces, and pick-and-place components—all in one system,” Bianchi explains. “It’s like replacing an entire factory in a two-metre cube.” Compared with traditional PCB prototyping, which can take up to six weeks, KELENN’s process can deliver a functional part in just three days.

While most industrial printing still occurs on flat surfaces, KELENN is focusing on direct-to-shape applications that allow decoration or functional printing onto curved and irregular forms. Rousseau points out that this approach has profound environmental advantages: “If you can print directly on 3D parts, you can avoid painting entire surfaces. You print only where it’s needed, reducing material use.”

KELENN will showcase several of these advances at FuturePrint Industrial Print in Munich this January. Rousseau hints at a live demonstration that perfectly embodies their philosophy of sustainable innovation: “We’re going to print with a plant-based ink—live. The idea is to show that high-quality, intense colour can come from plant-based chemistry. Do we always need synthetic chemistry? Maybe not.”

For Rousseau, these developments signal not only technological progress but also a healthy, expanding business. “We’re growing fast,” he says. “The maturity of the innovations we’ve been developing is paying off.” KELENN’s combination of research depth, technical integration, and sustainability focus reflects the broader direction of industrial inkjet as it moves from niche applications toward mainstream manufacturing.

As Rousseau concludes: “We want to participate in the change—to propose real game-changers to the industry.” If the work on show in Munich is any indication, KELENN Technology may do just that.