Mitsui Chemicals announced that COTEC GmbH, a German subsidiary of U.S.-based group company SDC Technologies, have developed a digital printer for innovative hydrophobic-coated automotive displays in partnership with fellow German company CADIS Engineering GmbH.

Used in ophthalmic lenses, among others, COTEC’s ultra-hydrophobic coatings not only offer outstanding water repellency, but also helps to keep the　clear views and easy-to-clean, as fingerprints, sebum and dirt can easily be wiped off the coated surface. The new printer combines COTEC’s ultra-hydrophobic coating technology with CADIS’s digital printing machine expertise.

The result is a groundbreaking technology that allows continuous production of hydrophobic coatings for automotive displays in a normal pressure environment, as opposed to the current method based on batch production using a vacuum evaporator.