Live printed electronics demo set for Munich show

On March 4 and 5 at the International Exhibition and Conference for the Printed Electronics Industry electroluminescent films the size of a business card will be produced live in the exhibition hall. They display an illuminated logo when voltage is applied.

Printed elements of this kind can be used to create radiant patterns and lines as well as fully illuminated displays. Multiple wafer-thin layers of conductive and electroluminescent materials are printed on plastic film or special paper and then encapsulated.

"Thanks to the Demo Line, LOPEC gives all manufacturers and users of printed electronic components a perfect opportunity to gather information about the manufacturing process and see machines in operation. No other exhibition has that," emphasises Thomas Kolbusch, Vice President of Coatema Coating Machinery and LOPEC Exhibition Chair.

More than a dozen exhibitors are participating in the Demo Line. Besides the production line, other separately operated systems will be on display, allowing them to gather information about other techniques such as inkjet, flatbed and silk-screen printing as well as the drying and post-processing steps.

The fact that production techniques for printed electronic elements are suitable for use in actual practice is illustrated by the Demo Line and—in general—by the constantly growing number of corresponding systems that are presented at LOPEC.

"Organic and printed electronics are used in more and more branches of industry, from consumer electronics to the automotive and packaging industries. Because these new electronic components are thin, lightweight and flexible, they can be integrated directly into a number of applications," emphasizes OE-A Managing Director Dr. Klaus Hecker. That also applies to electroluminescent components: The packaging and advertising industry, for instance, is extremely interested in this sector because it wants to literally illuminate packaging or brochures using electroluminescent patterns, lines, blinking logos and dots.

The LOPEC Demo Line is an initiative of OE-A members, coordinated by the Fraunhofer Institute for Electronic Nano Systems and based on an idea from the Institute of Printing Science and Technology at Technische Universität Darmstadt. The companies participating in the Demo Line in 2015 are as follows: adphos, Altana, Bosch Rexroth, Coatema, DuPont Teijin Films, Felix Schoeller, Fujifilm Dimatix, Heraeus Noblelight, Heraeus Precious Metals, NovaCentrix, Thieme, Varta and Xenon Corporation.