Printed electronics and printed functionalities are on the rise, in the form of RFID (radio frequency identification), as part of telephone or credit cards (smart cards), as copy protection or as security features in ID cards.
To produce printed electronics, organic or metal-containing inks are applied on plastic foils, paper or glass.
Drying, curing and sintering are methods required to achieve the desired conductivity or semi-conducting or dielectric properties.
UV lamps or LEDs, flash lamps, hot-air ovens or novel infrared systems with intelligent control units are used for this.
Infrared heat for printed electronics
Your advantages with infrared heat:
- A novel infrared system with an intelligent control unit can carry out different drying and sintering processes. This makes tool changes unnecessary
- Infrared emitters transmit energy without contact and generate heat only on the product
- Their wavelength, power output and shape can be well adjusted to different functional materials and substrates
- Short reaction times minimise damage in case of unexpected stops of the conveyor belt
- Advanced numerical methods such as ray tracing and computational fluid dynamics help design the heating process of the materials as homogeneous as possible
- A sophisticated reflector technology also contributes to an optimal use of energy