Digitalisation, Industry 4.0 & IoT

Printed electronic in combination with advanced material development pursues mega trends with new markets and businesses for flexible, stretchable and large area electronic. More recently, beyond 2D, printing electronic on 3D object is also growing. This technology become an integrate part of the Internet of Things (IoT), by making smart system displays, sensors and active functional surfaces.

Most of these printed devices are currently integrated on plastic foils, papers and textiles. Nevertheless, metallic substrates for printed electronic appear to be also a promising alternative for several raisons. First, metal can overcome important arising technological difficulties due to the shortcomings durability, moisture barrier properties (particularly for organic material) and heat dissipation. Moreover, metal will allow very original smart applications in Building, Appliance and Automotive. In addition, it offers a very nice opportunity to address the 3 D world combining electronic functions and makes possible a future generation of printed and low cost electronic devices in the metallurgy world.

From years, CRM group has been involved in improving processes and products in the metal industry. The developed Sensors and Measurement techniques are particularly devoted to help controlling the process and ensuring the quality of the products and allowing predictive maintenance. The industrial conditions in which these sensors have to operate, allow to cope with most production techniques. Therefore, these developments could find applications in many other sectors such as glass, paper,…

• Miniaturisation of systems
• Integration of micro-PC like Raspberry or Arduino
  • To acquire and process the data
  • To control sensor status and communication
• Use of wireless communication adapted to industry (metallic structures, …) like LORA or less consuming NRF24L01
• Application of data learning with integration of plant data and measurements done by CRM measurement systems