Printed Electronics is a platform technology to achieve thin, flexible, and lightweight functional components and systems. It is based on specific plastic and metal materials; the production technologies complement with additive manufacturing methods. Printed Electronics uses various adapted Roll-to-Roll and sheet fed processes like offset, gravure or inkjet printing for manufacturing.

Printed electronics products are already part of every days life in different applications and industries. Automotive, healthcare and consumer Electronics industries use printed electronics to enable new designs, geometries, formats, and applications. The integration and combination of different components, the mechanic and electric and electronic interfaces require competence and experience.

The talk provides an introduction, an overview of the state of the art of the technology and a view in the OE-A roadmap (organic and printed electronics association) for existing and future applications printed electronics and 3D structural electronics and functions.

The market of Large Area Organic Printed Electronics is developing rapidly to increase efficiency and quality as well as to lower costs further. Applications for OPV, NFC, RFID and compact Printed Electronic systems are increasing. In order to make the final products more affordable, but at the same time highly accurate, Roll to Roll (R2R) production on flexible transparent polymer substrates is the way forward. There are numerous printing and coating technologies suitable depending on the design, the product application and the chemical process technology. KROENERT and their sister company Coatema are offering coating, printing and laminating machines to fulfil the requirements from the market. In all cases of Printed Electronics, customized machine solutions and processes are required, based on standardized advanced technology machine components. We will show with the presentation the results of the realized projects with respect to flexible printed electronic.

Printed electronics has been an advance by allowing the development of flexible circuits on practically any surface with light weight and a thickness of less than a millimeter. However, in a market that is constantly growing and evolving, the demand for new devices and new functionalities requires new uses for this flexible electronics and the development of new techniques that make it possible to achieve products with complex, lightweight and/or flexible shapes that integrate the electronics in a simple and versatile way. The new technique known as Plastronics is an important bet. The technical presentation will introduce and show the basis of printed electronics and hybrid electronics, which consists of plastronics and In Mold Electronics and its application in obtaining a final product applicable to various sectors.

Microgroove structures and off axis vacuum coating have been used to make accepting structures for the delivery of several different types of electrical devices. Presented are the processes and resultant device characteristics that have been demonstrated using roll to roll production techniques including: Solar modules; capacitors; sensors and lighting devices. The ongoing research is also discussed along with limitations observed in supply of suitable low cost encapsulants for th delivery of robust systems

More information will be available shortly.

Atomic Layer Deposition (ALD) is an enabling technology, which has been shown to improve battery performance through the introduction of thin film coatings to modify interface surfaces on cathodes, anodes and separators. ALD coatings can help to improve thermal stability, stabilize the SEI layer, suppress dendrites, inhibit transition metal dissolution, and increase interfacial contact between layers, all of which are current issues facing lithium-ion battery technology. This presentation will demonstrate how Beneq uses ALD technology to solve these issues and show how this can be scaled to production levels within a Gigafactory environment via the current Genesis R2R ALD system Beneq has developed for high throughput production.

Troughs are gentle ripples in low and moderate thickness webs between rollers in many R2R machines. If they grow large enough, wrinkles, creases and folds can form on the next roller and cause product damage and waste. This paper outlines a new analysis of the troughs, and what they tell us about the compressive stresses in the incoming and outgoing web, together with sideways movement. Applications to roller misalignment, diameter variations and helical grooving will be discussed.

Web tension is one of the most critical process values in roll-to-roll processes. Its control is key for the performance and lot of different techniques and designs are applied. Thanks to the development of simulation software, the accuracy and performance of simulation has greatly increased in the past years. We present a new approach in order to analyze the behavior of the web in every roller, allowing to predict web shifting and wrinkles generation from design.

At the mention of "electrical problems", many of us are filled with dread. This is made worse when the problem is intermittent. I will describe many common intermittent complaints and troubleshooting methods for electrical web handling equipment. In this presentation, an intermittent electrical fault results in an unexpected stop of web handling equipment or unexpected loss of product quality.
Intermittent electrical problems take several forms. A device such as a motor tachometer may give intermittent bad speeds. Loose connections are a constant source of intermittent faults. Faulty machine-to-machine communications can result in intermittent operation. Software may produce random unexpected operations.
Troubleshooting intermittent electrical problems has improved greatly over the years. Years ago we used expensive 8 channel chart recorders to plot the most important signals leaving one or 2 channels for troubleshooting intermittent problems. Today we may digitally monitor 200 or more channels with high frequency. At lower frequencies, historians may monitor thousands of signals as well as multiple high-speed video streams. New software can search this data to zoom in on Key Performance Indicators (KPI) such as sheet breaks, excessive vibration, torque variations, or speed variations.

The advanced Light Initiated Thermal Emission (aLITE) – platform technology is present the next generation of the systematically and further developed advanced NIR (aNIR)-drying technology. The adphos proprietary developed aLITE-technology is consisting of a combination of high energetic photonic source with warm air high velocity process air impeachment and ventilation (WAVe). With the optimized combined, but independent adjustment and control of the specific application process relevant energy and mass transfer for an aLITE, a market leading

- high productivity and
- enhanced product quality and
- minimized process energy consumption
all also with no primary CO2-emissions of the thermal processes can be generated now.

In this presentation the fundamentals of the aLITE working principles in comparison to the todays conventional, hot air convection, hot drum and IR- (short-, midwave and NIR) – based heating/drying systems are outlined. aLITE can be widely applied for all printing/coating application technologies for water-based and/or solvent-based (even powder-based) thin to thick film applications on cellulose, plastic, metallic, glass and ceramic substrates. For several actual application examples (battery, printed electronics, flexible packaging) with aLITE, now possible print/coating processes and line configurations are described and the extraordinary benefits demonstrated in comparisons with todays conventional solutions.

is highly relevant for packaging, as two recent studies commissioned by Flexible Packaging Europe and conducted by ifeu research institute clearly demonstrate.

By using a life cycle assessment approach, the first study shows that flexible packaging, which represents half of food primary packaging placed on the EU market (in product units) while accounting for only one sixth of packaging material used (in weight), not only helps prevent the generation of packaging waste in Europe but also represents the most effective route to resource efficiency and mitigating global warming. Conversely, a switch towards much heavier formats that are more easily recyclable today could be detrimental to climate change.

The second study, which investigates the environmental performance of multi-material pouches used for pasta sauce and olives as compared to alternative heavier packaging systems commonly used, sheds an interesting light on the relative role of the end-of-life and the effect of increased recycling in the environmental impact of the studied packaging solutions.

Ongoing efforts of the entire value chain to make flexible packaging widely recyclable and therefore even more resource efficient will further contribute to reducing overall carbon emissions.

Comexi will show all integrated printing, coating and laminating solutions we offer for those whose base is both paper and monostructure packaging.

Electron beam treatment at atmospheric pressure is common technology to change and adapt the thermo-mechanical properties of polymeric materials. The talk will give a short overview about the technology and exemplary property changes like increased glass transition temperature, increased Young's modulus or increased permeation barrier. First results from a project will be presented. Within the project a fully recyclable monomaterial for stand-up pouches is developed. Therefore a combination of polymeric material, additives and electron beam irradiation is used to tailor properties. The presentation will highlight results for mechanical properties, recyclability aspects and product relevant properties like heat sealability and bending stiffness.

More information will be available shortly.

In the last few years, an increased interest in functional papers has been observed globally. Both converters and brand owners are pushing the flexible packaging world to match the sustainability targets within 2025-2030. Of course, paper is not a new material for packaging, but it has been mainly used as part of multilayers structures e.g., paper/aluminium foil or extruded coated paper or metallized film laminated to paper. Today mono-material concept is preferred over the multi-materials and the percentage of paper in the structures is moving from 50% to 95%. The main challenge for mono-material paper-based is to reach high barrier properties which so far have been reached by films or multi material composites. Physical Vapor Deposition (PVD) metallization is largely used on film to supply or boost barrier properties, and it has been natural to think of using it to functionalize the paper as well.

For this reason, Nissha Metallizing Solutions has been actively working in developing metallized barrier paper for last five years focusing mainly on the high vapor barrier, to reach WVTR around 1 g/m2/day in tropical conditions.

Along our journey, we have learnt that the selection of the raw material is the key to reach the desired final product, both base paper and coatings play significant roles.

The flexibility of the paper and of the coatings, the reduction of the pinholes of the substrate, the good adherence between coatings and base paper, the amount and homogeneity of aluminium layer have been some of the challenges faced to produce a good barrier paper, without forgetting the food compliance and recyclability as outcome.

The achievements are really encouraging. Nissha Metallizing Solutions has been able to develop and scale-up a recyclable metallized barrier paper showing WVTR < 1 g/m2/day in tropical conditions, where the barrier level is slightly increased after folding but still at a good level.

The journey is not finished yet, new challenges must be overcome, and we are currently working on those together with different partners.

1. Who We Are & Our Approach to Sustainability
2. Focus: Adhesives Used
3. Focus: Application Technologies
4. Focus: Quality

Flexible packaging offers a number of sustainability benefits throughout the entire life cycle of the package such as material lightweight and optimal barrier properties allowing shelf life extension for perishable good contributing food waste reduction. Despite the number of sustainability benefits the flexible packaging industry faces some challenges most of them related to difficult recycling due to complex multilayer materials and a lack of recovery schemes for post-consumer collecting and sorting systems. Different organizations have promoted Design for Recycling guidelines and certifications to improve the recyclability of plastic packaging.

In the recent years a new trend has arisen aimed to move form a Lineal Economy, in which the natural resources are transformed into products to be disposed at their end life, to a Circular Economy model aimed to improve waste management increasing the use of secondary materials and avoid scarcity of natural resources. Nevertheless, although the recycled materials can reduce costs and impacts on the environment, uncertainty about the quality can be an important barrier to their uptake. According to European regulations, the use of post-consumer recycled plastic in food packaging applications is only permitted in two cases: if the recycled plastics come from an authorized recycling process, or if the recycled plastics are placed behind a functional barrier.

Vacuum based barrier coatings are playing an increasingly important role towards replacing multi-layer laminates with recyclable mono-materials (e.g. MDOPE) or compostable biobased alternatives (e.g. paper). However, achieving barrier values with metal (oxide) coated MDOPE or paper to the same level as with PET counterparts is a daunting task mainly because both plain MDOPE and paper have much more inferior barrier properties as compared with plain PET. Therefore, the quality of conventional vacuum coated layers must be dramatically improved to reach barrier values in the same range as with metal (oxide) coated PET. Inline top coating is an efficient way to boost the performance of vacuum coated barrier materials. In this talk, we will outline the basic principle and recent advances on the only available inline vacuum top coating technology on the market which provides intrinsic barrier properties. It will be demonstrated that this technology has the potential to significantly boost the barrier of metal (oxide) coated MDOPE and paper in addition to providing other important performance characteristics such as direct printability.

It is often the case that a coating system’s laydown rate varies over time. This can occur on a short term basis, such as within a coating run, or on a long term basis, such as during extended usage. In this presentation we will discuss several possible causes of the change in the laydown rate, including what may contribute to variations in certain coating application methods, and what actions can be taken to address/correct the variations.

Multilayer flexible packaging has had a great growth in recent years thanks to the improvements on films and adhesives. These improvements have made the lamination process more complicated and expensive. The conference will analyze why there is so much waste in the lamination process, how much they cost and how to reduce them.

Ink viscosity is one of the most important factors for achieving high and consistent color quality in gravure printing. Despite the sophisticated measurement and control systems built into today’s printing machines, ink viscosity is still frequently measured with inefficient and inaccurate methods, such as efflux cups and falling ball viscometers.

The variability of these measurements makes consistent color quality difficult to maintain. They underscore the need for a viscosity measurement and control system that can help operators obtain the very best color quality over the very long print runs that are characteristic of gravure.

Viscosity plays an important role in the final quality of printed matter. Ink layer thickness and flow behavior deviate from the optimal values when the viscosity is incorrect, resulting in substandard print quality. Poorly adjusted ink viscosity can also lead to excessive ink consumption and unnecessary costs. Accurate viscosity measurement and control can substantially improve print quality, while reducing waste and improving efficiency.

Even though methods are now available for continuous inline measurement of ink viscosity, many are sensitive to contamination, installation variables, and baseline shifts, which can impair operator confidence and cast doubt as to their long-term reliability. We will show the value of stable, easily cleanable, and repeatable viscosity sensors in printing processes. We will support our conclusions with experience and data from printers who have been using our sensors and automation systems over a period of several years.

A further benefit of high-accuracy viscosity measurement and control is online, automatic, dynamic control of color accuracy within previously unattainable narrow limits, thus ensuring high and consistent print quality over even the longest runs.

Beside the significant COVID-19 impact on all aspects such as health, psychological and social on the population. It has had led a major change in consumers packaging behavior. The visible part had been some people were doing panic-buying and stocking due the fear of lockdowns, others have increased their ordering in line. Regardless of these behaviors, what really remained is a demand for "convenient" packaging . Thus it lead an increasing demand for flexible packaging.

According to several technical reports, just to mention one the Robbie Fantastic Flexibles (a member of the flexible packaging association ), states that flexible plastic packaging requires fewer resources and energy for this duty , as convenient packaging.

On the other part of the scale, there has been a gradual consumers awareness to plastic debris in oceans and landfills. It has been leading to a rise the concerns for all types of flexible packaging and not only for the single-use packaging.

These social dynamic changes have encouraged all governments to respond to the public concerns. Thus a new strategy and regulations have been implementing to both minimize environmental waste and improve waste-management process.

All new regulations around waste management and recyclability are addressing all players along the flexible packaging converting. Asking them to growth for innovation in sustainable an environmentally friendly materials which would offer higher recyclability , energy efficiency and waste reduction.

Today, converters are pushing hard in their fields to achieve these targets. For instance, some plastic film producers are developing mono-materials packaging solutions, to match fully recyclable option. Moreover, among paper producers, they work under on paper/ coated high barrier materials to replace films

Obviously, not all types of actions will have the same impact on the sustainability footprint. However, all of them must manage cost efficiency and convenience for the end-users for creating a superior affordable sustainable packaging.

And in Cost efficiency is where different hybrid technology-products should be considered to get the most effective process to cut cost.

Hybrid converting solutions enable to get solutions for coating, printing or converting to work together.

Giave as a global developer and manufacturer of advance printing and coating solutions for converting Here provides a guide of use of those technologies that are developed to work together for this proposal.

Including a answer in the hybrid's FAQ

Water base coating- How to know what fits better , flexo or rotogravure? or a combination , reverse roller?

Meeting the targets set out in the Paris Agreement will require a massive reduction in CO2 emissions worldwide in the coming years and decades, consequently leading to a fundamental transformation of the entire economy.

Although the machinery and equipment industry itself accounts for only a very small share of CO2 emissions, owners and manufacturers of coating and laminating equipment, together, have the opportunity to take a key role on the way to a decarbonized world and can effect a reduction of more than half of today’s emissions through innovative concepts and alternative technologies.

This presentation points out chances and possibilities how owners of coating and laminating lines together with OLBRICH as a partner, can design the way for both sides profitably through the transformation time, also in times of constantly changing legal and social requirements. The presentation provides impulses, ways of thinking and case examples from a birds-eye perspective.