Plastronics: electronics embedded in plastic parts
What it is plastronics what it is for?
Plastronics, also known as in-mold electronics (IME), is an emerging technology that combines electronics and plastics to create products that have high added value, advanced functions or features and are manufactured on a large scale.
By combining the functional printing of electronics and the hybridisation of electronic components with traditional transformation processes,
such as injection, it is possible to create lightweight devices with new functionalities and embed them in geometrically complex products.
Plastronic: a revolution in the manufacture that allows to add intelligence and functions to the plastic components
Beneficiary sectors
Plastronics is a revolutionary technology for the automotive, aeronautics, packaging, consumer electronics, medical and sports industrie. It allows:
Advantages of plastronics
New plastronics pilot plant for companies
The new Eurecat’s Plastronics Pilot Plant is the first of these characteristics in Europe. It is a pioneer plant located in Cerdanyola del Vallès at the service of companies for the creation and improvement of products and processes, from the idea to industrialization. It is composed of two white rooms that allow the orderly combination of different manufacturing processes: one dedicated to printing and electronics and another oriented to plastic processes.
Cleanroom for printing and electronics
The facility is equipped with:
- A one-stop cylinder S2S screen printing machine.
- A machine for the hybridisation of SMD components (distribution and pick and place).
- Equipment for the handling of electronic inks. • UV, IR and heat-curing lines.
- Curing oven for solder paste.
- Cutting equipment with numerical control.
Cleanroom for plastic processes
The facility is equipped with:
- LSR silicone injection-molding machine (Arburg 50 Tn).
- Tri-material thermoplastic injection-molding machine (Engel 160 Tn).
- Printing Hybridisation Thermoforming Injection Molding
- Both rooms comply with the ISO 7 standard; however, their working protocols are designed to meet the ISO 8 standard.
- Sheet-thermoforming machine (Illig 100-UA).
- Six-axis robot for loading and unloading inserts.
Complete cycle of production of plastronics manufacturing processes
With this new facility, Eurecat is able to provide companies with a complete production cycle, from product concept to manufacturing. Specifically, the plant allows:
Succes cases in plastronics
Printing of sensors and circuits via the hybridisation of LEDs, thermoforming and overinjection
Printing of sensors and circuits via the hybridisation of LEDs, thermoforming and overinjection
A device that demonstrates the capacity to create interfaces. It has all of the functionalities necessary to operate the “Simon” memory game.
PLASTFUN Project
Development of the necessary techniques and methods for establishing, at an industrial scale, a pilot facility for manufacturing plastic-injected products, whose surfaces provide advanced functionalities. The pilot production facility
will enable companies in Catalonia to develop new products using these technologies and to acquire the necessary knowledge
to make their production profitable.
PLASTFUN is an Industries of the Future RIS3CAT Community project, coordinated by Eurecat.