History
Held for the first time in 1981, NIP became an annual conference in 1988. With the exception of the first year when it was held in Venice, Italy, and 1993, when it was held in Yokohama, Japan, NIP has rotated to various cities throughout North America.
Prior to being spun off into a "stand-alone" collocated meeting in 2005, Digital Fabrication was a technical session within NIP. Held for the first time in 2005, it has been an annual conference ever since.
Scope
For more than 30 years, NIP has been the leading forum for discussion of advances and new directions in non-impact and digital printing technologies. A comprehensive, industry-wide conference, this meeting includes all aspects of the hardware, materials, software, images, and applications associated with digital
printing systems, including drop-on-demand ink jet, wide format ink jet, desktop and continuous ink jet, toner-based electrophotographic printers, production digital printing systems, and thermal printing systems, as well as the engineering capability, optimization, and science involved in these fields.
Digital Fabrication explores the potential of digital printing technologies with sessions on new applications and materials that go well beyond traditional printing. Digital fabrication techniques have been used for biomedical applications, as well as to produce MEMS and new electronic devices. Conference topics include 2D & 3D functional printing and micromachining; digital fabrication instrumentation; ink jet printing processes; laser patterning processes, direct-write, and integration in printing manufacturing lines; process materials and substrates for digital fabrication; nano-patterning and imprint technologies; prototyping technology; printed sensors, photovoltaic cells, lighting devices, biomaterials, architectural components and electronics and devices; and industrial and commercial digital fabrication.