A new pilot factory for printed intelligence, the first of its kind, has recently opened at VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland in Oulu, Finland. The PrintoCent productisation environment at the VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland premises represents the most advanced industrialisation capability and service, being at least two or three years ahead of others, according to VTT. The latest Roll-to-Roll pilot printing line offers unique manufacturing performance to integrate printed intelligence into our everyday consumables and living environment.
Besides ground-breaking technological advancements, PrintoCent offers a unique business and manufacturing environment for companies to manufacture components, products and solutions based on printed intelligence technologies. The PrintoCent Pilot Factory reduces the commercial and technical risks before fully commercial operation commences. Hence, the creation of this tailor-made environment is suitable for companies of all sizes.
Today, there are around 180 professionals working in the PrintoCent community. Although there are numerous Finnish companies exploiting this multidisciplinary business development environment, PrintoCent is actively building industrial partners’ global network and thus focuses on killer applications, pilot manufacturing and value chains development. Market forecast companies have estimated that there will be a 250 billion euro industry in the field of printed electronics and intelligence in 15 years.
The PrintoCent is based on the research work that began in the late 1990s at VTT led by Professor Harri Kopola. He points out that the Pilot Factory is a real milestone from lab to fab. PrintoCent Director Ilkka Kaisto believes that the availability of Pilot Factory services will stimulate the application-driven industry activities and through the European COLAE-project the key players are building the networks and partnerships towards joint service platforms for commercialisation.
It should be noted that the PrintoCent offering is a disruptive route, not an update to any old production technology. The companies are provided with a completely new setting that enables the agile development and creation of truly innovative product concepts. At the very core is the idea of producing intelligent products with tremendous industrial speed so that the costs favour mass production. The biggest challenge is to introduce unlimited possibilities in printed intelligence to companies, and to bring it into their technology toolbox. Therefore, the most fantastic killer solutions are yet to be invented.
To make sure that the best printed intelligence solutions are identified and jointly developed, an international industrial PrintoCent cluster is being created. Printed Intelligence technology enables new large area, flexible, thin and light products to be standalone or to be integrated into structures like buildings, packages and vehicles, and to radically renew electronics products. Home diagnostics and wellness, distributed and renewable energy, smart packaging and anti-counterfeiting, and interactive user interfaces and electronic solutions for our everyday services are examples of application areas.
