The application prospect of ink on smart labels is immeasurable

They have no visual function and have long been excluded from the printing field. However, traditional printing technology and digital printing technology are now being applied to the production of smart labels. Although this kind of production is still small-scale and the number is very small, we believe that in the near future, inks will have inestimable application prospects in the mass production of electronic data products, and this application will also partially change printing Method and type of ink.

At a printing conference on smart labels in Europe, Dan Lawrence, a manufacturer of Flint Ink inks, once said, “With the development of technology, inks will likely replace some of the growing proportion of electronic components in electronic devices. For integrated circuits, Say, maybe, as we know, it will be possible to be completely replaced by ink. "

Printing already has this technical capability to manufacture large-scale electronic materials, which can meet the large demand of the market for entering a new era of precision and cheap electronic components. The printing industry has a long way to go from printing a large number of image products to electronics manufacturing.

An ordinary printing press or printer cannot suddenly become a device for making electronic materials. But it is not impossible to imagine that in a fairly clean operating room, printing machines made by Heidelberg and other digital printing equipment manufacturers will be able to produce electronic products.

The new business of printed electronics is not only a revolution in the printing industry, but also a revolution in the electronics industry. By then, the production of electronic products will be a series of printing jobs scattered around the world, just like the current printing industry, not just microchips and integrated circuits that only a few large manufacturers can produce.

Smart tags will mainly exist in electronic article surveillance (EAS) and radio wave identification (RFID) systems in the world market. EAS is mainly used in anti-theft devices in the retail industry, and RFID is mainly used to depict and track bulk goods through the supply chain.

Another major market for smart labels printed with new inks is in diagnostic applications. For example, on some devices that show changes in temperature, pressure, light, and humidity, and devices that detect the presence of viruses, bacteria, and gases. Some photochromic or thermochromic inks have been developed. The color of these inks will change when subjected to light treatment, disinfection or curing treatment. In hospitals, such ink-printed labels can be used to check the cleanliness of the disinfection of medical appliances and equipment.

At Ford Motor Company, because the polyurethane suspension material (a coating) undergoes a thermal curing treatment on the production line, it is difficult for the staff to correctly judge whether the curing treatment is just right, so there will be many vehicles with insufficient quality, resulting in vehicle recall , Great losses. They adopted the recommendations of a special ink company. Before curing, a self-adhesive cycle 'point' has been added to each part. These points are beginning to be reddish and become black after heat curing at the correct time. In terms of effectively removing uncured parts during processing, Ford Auto companies have proven the reliability of this method in practice.

There are also smart labels printed with ink to help people judge whether sunlight is suitable for human skin and prevent exposure. Mainly some stickers, which are attached to the skin, can test the safety bottom line of the strength of the sun on a certain type of skin, and stickers beyond this intensity will change color.

The application prospects of smart inks are very impressive, but there are still many technical obstacles to the application of smart inks. Some obstacles are not the ink itself, but the printing problem. The more intelligent the ink, the more difficult it is to print with them. For example, printing with heat-sensitive inks used in low-temperature environments is very difficult because they must be printed in room-temperature environments.

Another issue is cost. In the past ten years, the average selling price of an RFID tag has dropped from US $ 100 to US $ 1, and is expected to drop to a lower level, when it will be more competitive than electronic sheets.

Due to the wide application of the depiction and tracking system from bulk goods to individual products, the sales volume of RFID, smart ink or sheet will rise rapidly. Retailers in the United States have experimented with using RFID systems instead of bar code identification systems to improve the efficiency of inventory checking and accelerate the speed of customers passing through the checkout counter. I believe that by then, the major businesses will be more willing to use RFID systems.

The most important issue at present is to reduce the cost of RFID tags properly. Some foreign companies are experimenting to limit the cost of each RFID tag to $ 1, but they want to reduce it to 3 cents.

Product labeling has become a necessary choice for commodities to enter the international market. If a 96-bit smart tag with integrated circuit and antenna is embedded in each product, the data can be transmitted to the Internet by scanning with a radio wave card reader. ?? Save hundreds of millions of dollars. At the same time, the benefits to customers are considerable.

Some foreign research institutions devoted to smart technology believe that through the improvement of integrated circuits, antennas and manufacturing processes, the cost of RFID and other electronic tags will soon be reduced to a price generally acceptable to merchants.

The biggest cost reduction will be in the manufacture of integrated circuits. The cost of assembling integrated circuits, antennas, and other components, as well as the cost of applying them to product packaging, will be reduced appropriately. From a long-term perspective, printing will play an important role in reducing costs, especially in the final stage of the entire manufacturing. RFID antennas have been embedded in labels by traditional printing methods, and inks containing more ingredients required by RFID and other electronic devices will soon be developed. The new ink will not consist of pigments, binders, solvents and additives, but will consist of tubular, spherical and other shapes of nano-sized particles, conductive and luminescent polymers and those used as solvents and additives Molecular composition. Moreover, this new type of ink can be printed using existing printing processes. For certain applications, each process has its advantages. Perhaps different processes are used at different stages for the entire manufacturing.

Inevitably, there are many technical obstacles that we need to solve. These include the need to enhance the performance of semiconductor polymers, as well as substantial improvements and enhancements in printing resolution, registration accuracy, necessary isolation layers, and a clean printing environment. Once these obstacles are removed, traditional printing is expected to become a means of manufacturing electronic components worldwide.

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