Saralon | New Ink Sets for Stretchable Printed Electronics Applications
- khashayar Ghaffarzadeh
- 3 days ago
- 4 min read
Author: Steve Paschky
Saralon now offers new ink sets for stretchable membrane switches, heaters, and electroluminescent display printing. Each of these sets contains all the essential ink components tailored to each application, simplifying your work for a seamless, high-quality experience.
Last year, I wrote about our range of stretchable Saral Inks, designed for different substrates with various formulations like silver, carbon, and others. Since then, technology has continued to evolve, and so have the needs of the industry. We’ve been hearing from customers that they need stretchable inks that are not only conducting but also provide features like heating and capacitive touch, all while withstanding dynamic forces like bending, stretching, and twisting.
One of our major focuses at Saralon has been on providing "ink sets"- collections of compatible inks that are designed for specific applications of Printed Electronics (PE). This approach aligns with our company’s mission: Simplifying Electronics Through InkTech. PE devices often require printing multiple layers of ink on top of each other, and one common challenge for developers is finding the right combination of inks that work well together. That’s where our Saral Inks Sets come in. For specific PE applications, we offer complete sets of inks that are compatible with one another, easy to print, and ensure a trouble-less printing process.
For instance, we introduced SaralBattery Inks, SaralEC Display Inks, and SaralEL Display Inks few years ago; designed for printing batteries, electrochromic displays, and electroluminescent displays on flexible substrates.
As the demand for stretchable electronics has grown, it was clear that we needed to develop new stretchable ink sets that go beyond just conductivity and provide specific functionalities for particular applications. And that’s exactly what we’ve done. This year, we’ve launched new ink sets for stretchable heaters, membrane switches, and electroluminescent displays.
Ink set for printing heaters on stretchable materials
Applications like surface heating in automotive, specially on complex geometries like arm rest areas demand printed electronics heaters that can easily stretch and twist. The other application areas include therapeutic and medical devices, hospit
al equipment like blankets and bed components. Stretchability offers more comfort, easier integration into product, and higher reliability under dynamic forces.
Saral StretchHeater Inks
Saral StretchHeater Inks contains all three ink components needed for printing stretchable heaters.
Saral StretchSilver 100 is the silver based conductive ink that offer over 300% stretchability with a sheet resistance of 30mΩ/sq/25 μm. It is screen printable and thermally dried at 90°C – 130°C.
Saral StretchCarbon 200 is the carbon based stretchable electrically conducting ink, suitable for printing on different stretchable surfaces e.g. TPU. We recommend a drying temperature of 120°C to reach a sheet resistance of 60mΩ/sq/25 μm.
Saral StretchDielectricT 300 is a solvent based stretchable, transparent dielectric ink, suitable for elastic substrates. The ink is suitable as a protective layer on top of stretchable silver layers. The ink is screen printable and we recommend a curing temperature of 120°C.
Ink set for printing stretchable membrane switches
Be it in white goods, HMI, car interiors, etc. creating three dimensional (3D) capacitive touches offers a completely different level of design freedom and user experience. For such purposes, we’ve developed a complete stretchable ink set.
Saral StretchMembrane-Switch Inks includes all needed ink components for printing membrane switches on stretchable substrates like TPU. The Silver and Carbon ink components, are basically the same inks that are used in printing stretchable heaters, namely: Saral StretchSilver 100 and Saral StretchCarbon 200. For the Dielectric part however, we’ve developed an UV curable ink.
Saral StretchUVDielectricG 100 is the UV curable and stretchable dielectric ink, suitable for elastic and flexible substrates. The ink is with green pigment and up to 100% stretchability is possible.
Ink set for stretchable electroluminescent printing.
While we already have a standard ink set for EL display printing on common PE materials e.g., plastic and paper, there is still demand for stretchable EL displays for applications like 3D backlight design, that’s why we have a full set of inks for stretchable EL printing.
Saral StretchEL Display Inks contains four ink components and comes with AC/DC inverter. Again, the conducting silver ink is our high-performance Saral StretchSilver 100 with the specifications that were mentioned above. The three other stretchable ink components are as the following.
Saral StretchDielectricW 200 is a Barium Titanate based stretchable dielectric ink, suitable for elastic substrates and offers ~ 100% stretchability.
Saral StretchPhosphor 100 is the stretchable light emitting electroluminescent ink that comes in blue, orange, white, and green colors.
Saral StretchTCPolymer 100 is the transparent conducting ink offering over 300% stretchability on various elastic substrates.
These new Saral Inks Sets are designed to support PE developers across a range of industries, including automotive, HMI, surface heating, capacitive touch panels, wearables, etc., offering simplicity in printing, reliable functionality, and design flexibility. They’ve been created based on the input from our partners and clients in the Printed Electronics industry; which plays a crucial role in our development process. We always welcome any further ideas. So, please feel free to get in touch
Comentarios