Despite component shortages and rising material prices, Electric vehicles (EVs) have continued their strong growth throughout 2022, with sales looking to be increased by over 60% compared with the previous year. One factor that is difficult to overlook is vehicle fire safety. In addition to the major automotive recalls seen in 2020 and 2021 for GM, Hyundai, Ford, and others, 2022 also highlighted issues in other vehicle segments.

Essential to understanding the evolution of the polymer 3D printing industry is exploring the change from low-cost printing technologies and materials to the slow growth and adoption of innovative polymer printing technologies and materials, from viscous thermosets to carbon fiber composites to foams.

Thursday 23 February 2023 - Opportunities for Integrated Functionality. In this webinar Dr Matthew Dyson, a Principal Technology Analyst at IDTechEx, will discuss the following topics: - The status of IME and competing approaches for creating functional and decorative interfaces across multiple application sectors. - The challenges and benefits associated with functionality integration, and how the value proposition of IME is likely to grow over time. - IME specific material requirements, especially for conductive inks. - A roadmap for IME adoption, segmented by industry.

The rapid growth of the electric vehicle market has driven the development, manufacture and sales of batteries, especially lithium-ion batteries, which are dominating the battery industry for a decade.

Membrane materials are of fundamental importance for fuel cells. So significant, in fact, that they typically give their name to the fuel cell, as is the case for Proton Exchange Membrane (PEM) fuel cells, with IDTechEx forecasting the market for ion-exchange membranes in PEM fuel cells to be worth over USD$1.1 billion by 2033.

Enhancing 'sustainability' is a widely held aspiration within the electronics industry - realizing this transition is considerably more difficult. To this day, toxic chemicals, material waste, and energy-intensive processing are commonplace.

Friday 10 February 2023 - Status and prospects of competing analogue and digital manufacturing methods for printed electronics; Technical discussion of emerging digital manufacturing methodologies; Evaluation of the benefits and challenges of adopting high throughput R2R manufacturing; and Innovations in component placement and attachment that will facilitate manufacturing of FHE.

Wednesday 8 February 2023 - Technological Developments and Applications. Contents that will be covered in this webinar include: An overview of PIC technology; Drivers of increased data demands from data centres; PIC trends in the communications industry; and PIC adoption in other markets

Quantum Computers: What Are They and When Will They Create Commercial Value? In the last decade, the number of companies actively developing quantum computer hardware has quadrupled. In 2022 multiple funding rounds surpassing US$100 million have been closed, and the transition from lab-based toys to commercial products has begun.

The materials industry is sometimes described as conservative, but digital transformation is well underway in the sector. Materials informatics - the application of data-centric approaches, including machine learning, to materials R&D - has the potential to be the most impactful arm of this process.

The Carbon Capture, Utilization, and Storage (CCUS) Market: Will It Finally Take-off? Recognized as one of the key technologies essential to achieving net-zero emissions targets, the momentum behind carbon capture, utilization, and storage (CCUS) deployment is building up. This webinar highlights the findings of the new IDTechEx report, "Carbon Capture, Utilization, and Storage (CCUS) Markets 2023-2043", a comprehensive market report on the CCUS industry.

Can electronics manufacturing be reconfigured for our digital, environmentally-conscious age? IDTechEx's new report, "Manufacturing Printed Electronics 2023-2033", explores a wide range of manufacturing innovations that will enable additive, digital, and higher throughput electronics production across many length scales.

Breaking Down the Drivers and Barriers Impacting Low-Loss Materials for 5G. Each year, the global deployment of 5G-enabled devices and infrastructure expands, bringing new and exciting applications to market, like smart devices, autonomous vehicles, and remote medical monitoring. However, the expansion of the 5G network, particularly the higher frequency mmWave bands, is restricted by several challenges.

As high-performance computing, artificial intelligence and machine learning algorithms, and even consumers become increasingly data-hungry, hardware struggles to keep pace. In addition, the need for real-time assessments of moving data points - such as for the accurate velocity-mapping of other objects in autonomous systems and facial recognition for security systems - is crucial to an increasingly hands-free society.

Chemical recycling end-of-life plastic has its champions and its critics. IDTechEx does not believe these advanced recycling solutions are the much-promised silver bullet, but nor do they think they have no role to play in a circular economy.

Is this the year of rapid graphene sales? Are we slipping deeper into a disillusionment phase? Who will emerge as the market leaders? Is consolidation inevitable? 2023 will be a telling year for the industry.

IDTechEx have released a brand new report, "Quantum Computers 2023-2043". This report covers the hardware that promises a revolutionary approach to solving the world's unmet challenges.

While 5G mmWave has yet to take off, 6G research has already begun. But what exactly is 6G, and what are the emerging areas to watch?

What does good look like? Whether trying to predict World Cup results or assess the relative merits of emerging technologies, establishing a meaningful set of performance benchmarks is crucial but challenging.

"Diverse and Developing" - the only way to describe the current breadth of the polymer materials portfolio for additive manufacturing. From materials that vary in form factor (i.e., powders, resins, filaments) to material properties (i.e., flexible, reinforced, tough, etc.) to application (i.e., medical, industrial, dental, etc.), it can be difficult to define suitable enough categories that adequately cover this diverse market.