At the Binder Innovation and Technology Center (ITZ), sensors, heating elements and conductor tracks are produced by printing on plastic, metal, glass or ceramic, and even curved surfaces. The company announced that it has turned this into a production-ready system solution.
With it Binder says it is relocating function directly onto the surface of the component rather than the traditional approach of having individual parts that require installation space and assembly steps, and have several potential points of failure.
With printed electronics – a process developed at the ITZ – Binder applies functional layers directly onto the component. It applies high-precision screen and pad printing with conductive pastes based on silver, copper, carbon or PEDOT:PSS, as well as dielectric pastes. Multilayer printing produces conductor tracks, heating elements or sensors, including on three-dimensionally shaped and curved surfaces where conventional circuit boards reach their limits.
The applications are wide-ranging. In mechanical engineering, printed sensors supply data for condition monitoring and predictive maintenance; in operating interfaces, printed touch and force sensors replace mechanical buttons; and printed heating elements keep components reliably at temperature. The benefit is similar in every case: fewer individual parts, lower weight, more compact installation spaces and greater design freedom. Function and housing become one and the same part.
