• Martin Gouch, FFEI’s ‘Fellow of Industry’

    FFEI’s Chief Scientist gains Institute of Physics Fellowship

Introducing FFEI’s Institute of Physics Fellow

It is unusual to meet a ‘Fellow from industry’, so we are particularly proud to announce that FFEI has one of its very own – Martin Gouch, Chief Scientist at FFEI.

Martin has been involved in applying Physics to produce products since leaving university. Working continuously in UK industry for over 30 years the variety of patent grants given – ranging from ‘Inkjet head support assembly’ and ‘Ink pinning assembly’ through to ‘Method and apparatus for image scanning’ and ‘Image reproduction’ – proves his innovative skills over the years.

We asked Martin how it felt to receive the Fellowship from the Institute of Physics. “In the first instance I was surprised to have been invited to apply for the Fellowship! I was therefore very pleased to actually be receiving it, but I certainly didn’t expect it. In fact I had convinced myself that I hadn’t been successful – months had gone by without notification and I received a letter regarding my subscription asking me to renew my membership (at the standard level not Fellowship).”

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Queen’s Award for Innovation 2103

Having joined FFEI in 1985 Martin has spent time working in a number of areas relating to the manufacture of graphics arts machines or products, playing a central role in the initial design of a number of products, which have become world beating products. This has included one product, which won a Queens Award for innovation in 2013.

“I think this has got to be the achievement I am most proud of. It took a lot of time and dedication to work though the initial design concepts through to the final product.” Martin continued “I am particularly pleased that the ‘Focus tracking’ feature I concentrated on was patented and became a key USP for the product.”

The role of Chief Scientist at FFEI

As FFEI’s Chief Scientist Martin is responsible for the overall technical lead in designing products for our clients. “When a new product is identified I will research ways that it can be achieved and produce a base design for the product. This commonly involves conducting a feasibility project where new technology or ideas are investigated to confirm if they are suitable for use in a product with consideration that the technology or idea is technically achievable, commercially achievable and is robust (will operate successfully in all environments that the product will operate in.)”

Martin has conducted these studies on a number of projects. On one occasion the customer approached the company with a proven design just requiring us to adapt it slightly and industrialise it ready for manufacture. Martin identified an alternative way of performing the same task, which could be implemented more compactly and at a tenth of the price. This has enabled the customer to become the market leader in the sales of the product. The product was only meant to have a two-year life span but is still in production 14 years later and the volumes shipped over an order of magnitude larger than the original estimates!

These are just some of the products Martin has worked on:-

Champion of Physics in the field of digital print

Martin has championed the role of Physics in the field of digital print. Since the early 2000’s he has been involved with the committee of the Printing and Graphics

Science group. Where in 2003 he set up the Printing, Packaging and Papermaking’s first Student Conference, designed to give students experience in presenting papers outside of their institution and to promote the Institute of Physics. This conference is still run every year and continues to be successful conference and a key part of the group’s calendar.

FFEI Fellowship IoP - Martin Gouch
Digital linerless label production solutions Digital linerless labels on Graphium Digital finishing & embellishment Digital finishing & embellishment with inkjet technologies