(January 18, 2016) With
the roll-to-roll overmoulding manufacturing process developed by VTT Technical
Research Centre of Finland, components can be easily overmoulded into durable
electronics products such as wearable sports solutions, toys and, for instance,
household appliances equipped with an overmoulded solar cell.
The jointly funded project coordinated by VTT has once more
achieved significant results promoting the birth of printable, flexible and
functional electronics, services and commercial business in Finland. In line
with its name, the Printed Into Products 2 project fosters the growth of the
industrial manufacturing of printed intelligence by different companies.
"VTT's roll-to-roll overmoulding manufacturing process
combined the printing, component assembly and overmoulding of components. The
results we achieved show that it is easy to overmould components assembled onto
a flexible film into durable products," states Project Manager Tapio
Ritvonen from VTT.
In practice, this means that conductors, circuit boards and
sensors, for instance, are printed onto a film, with the resulting electronic
components then assembled by an assembly machine. Finally, the structure is
overmoulded with plastic.
Oulu University of Applied Sciences carried out extensive
series of tests on the products manufactured using this process, investigating
the durability of the structures by means of salt spraying and various
mechanical tests, for example.
A printable and modelled transistor was also developed with
the roll-to-roll printing process during the project. Precision printing was
tested at the same time, and was found to be the most precise in the world by
achieving a 2-micrometre line width with equalline gap. During the project, the
University of Oulu developed a measurement method for the quality assurance of
industrial production, based on synchronised thermography, where a thermal
camera locates any defects in a printed, conductive structure.