Flexible Illuminated EL Coatings and Micro Manufacturing Cells to Apply Them

电致发光(EL)涂层是对传统EL背光技术的一种令人难以置信的新改编，这种背光是我在屏幕上打印的。它们的字面意思是，一种只需轻轻一按开关就能发光的涂料，就像其他涂料一样，可以涂在几乎任何2D或3D表面上。从自行车车架到消防员或自行车头盔，汽车内饰或外部车身，车辆保护膜，服装，空中救护车到紧急照明的人行道，EL涂料可以做到这一切。到目前为止，BandGap已经在一系列项目上应用了这些涂料，其中一些亮点是日产E方程式赛车，作为空客A350-1000的乙烯基膜，用于私人飞机内部部件，甚至电影/电视服装。由于到目前为止，这种涂料只能通过喷枪手工涂抹，因此应用仅限于高端。BandGap打算开发下一代电致发光涂料，并在健康和安全/个人防护设备、自行车安全、广告/品牌、航空、汽车和赛车运动行业实现大规模采用。现有的EL材料(丝网印刷或喷涂)大多不灵活，如果拉伸则会破裂或撕裂。虽然我们现有的电致发光涂层比传统的电致发光更灵活，并且已经可以应用于乙烯基，使照明贴花只有几百微米厚，但通过使用新的分散技术和最先进的粘合树脂，我们将重新发明使用电致发光的可能性。目前，大多数电子产品制造是在高度相互依赖、脆弱的供应链中进行的，而且往往是为了制造非常特定的产品而建立的，为了生产其他产品，重组成本巨大。像BandGap这样的公司正在首创的一种新方法是使用微型制造单元，这种单元是独立的、模块化的、参数的(易于按要求放大或缩小)，并且可以快速且廉价地部署。这种(行业4.0)方法，通过机器直接应用材料，将允许大规模定制，即产品可以大规模涂布，但每个单独的产品可能是不同的。

Electroluminescent (EL) coatings are an incredible new adaptation of the technology behind traditional EL backlights made my screen-printing.They are, literally, a paint that lights up at the flick of a switch, a paint, that like other paints, can be applied onto almost any 2D or 3D surface. From bicycle frames to fireman's or cycle helmets, car interior trim or exterior bodywork, vehicle wraps, clothing, air ambulances to emergency illuminated walkways, EL coatings can do it all.So far, Bandgap have applied these coatings on a wide range of projects, some highlights being a Nissan Formula E race car, as a vinyl wrap on an Airbus A350-1000, on private jet interior parts and even film/tv costumes.As the coatings have, up until now, only been hand-applied by spray gun, applications have been limited to high-end, one-off or small batch manufacturing.Bandgap intend to develop the next generation of electroluminescent coatings and bring about mass adoption across the health and safety/PPE, cycling safety, advertising/branding, aviation, automotive and motorsport industries. Existing EL materials (screen printed or sprayed) are by majority inflexible and crack or tear if stretched. While our EL existing EL coatings are more flexible than traditional EL and can already be applied to vinyl to make illuminated decals just a few hundred microns thin, by using new dispersion technologies and the most state-of-the-art binder resins we will be reinventing what is possible with EL. Currently, most electronics manufacturing is done in huge factories, highly interdependent, fragile supply chains and often set up to manufacture very specific products, with enormous cost to retool to produce something else.A new approach that companies like Bandgap are pioneering is to use micro manufacturing cells which are self-contained, modular, parametric (easily scaled up or down to requirements) and can be deployed quickly and cheaply. This (industry 4.0) approach, with direct application of materials by a machine, will allow mass-customisation i.e. where products can be coated at scale, but every individual one could be different.