Functional Labels
Today’s users are looking for smart technology to make their daily routine simpler and more efficient. Printed electronics has already been an important part of this development for many years. Here, versatile design possibilities, minimum material usage, cost-effective substrates, and additive printing methods are the key to sustainable products.
Applications are often realised on flexible substrates in screen-printing. According to the pastes used, layer thicknesses between 0.5µm and 30µm are applied for each printing step. Thanks to the variability of layer thicknesses, screen-printing has become an established printing method. It allows the space-saving mounting of very thin, light-weight components, e.g. as sensors in batteries. Printed electronics also finds use in the aerospace industry. The reduction in weight enables kerosene savings and is not only cost-efficient, but also contributes to sustainability.
Much has happened in the past in the area of printed labels. Label printers increasingly discover the possibility to make a classical label “smarter“. The following applications are already in place:
- Tamper guard in the form of printed conductive paths which are destroyed upon opening
and signal the message “Attention! This product has been opened or manipulated“. - RFID or NFC antennas in combination with a chip which allows contact-free payment and can offer further information about the product. This reduces the need for elaborate multi-layer labels.
- RFID antennas for a smart inventory control system and simple stock-taking.
- Temperature loggers which can be placed on sensitive goods.
- OLED displays in combination with printed batteries.
The last of these, the OLED display, allows one to create particularly eye-catching and interactive labels. OLEDs are thinner, compared to LEDs, and also more sustainable and more flexible. In combination with a printed battery (also rechargeable) 0.5mm thick labels can be produced and, for example, affixed to wine bottles. Pressing a button, sending an acoustical signal, or moving then activates the display.
ELANTAS Europe has developed such a label together with ACTEGA Terra. Special products of both companies were used in manufacturing this label. ELANTAS Europe contributed the functional screen-printing pastes, such as the Bectron® CP 6662 conductive silver paste and the Bectron® DP 8442 insulator. With its Wet Touch screen-printing lacquer, ACTEGA enhances the outer surface haptically and visually.
We would be pleased to answer any questions directly about the technical implementation of your projects with these products. Simply send us an e-mail to: AdvancedPrinting@altana.com
You can find further information about the products described under the links below.
There and in our technical datasheets you can find recommendations for other insulating and conductive screen-printing pastes.
Functional Inks and More (elantas.de)
Printed Electronic Products (elantas.de)