Direct Printed Battery-On-flexible circuit boards for digital applications

当家里的东西不见了，比如你的钥匙，这是一个烦人的程序。当东西在工作中被放错地方或丢失时，这是一个真正的问题，给世界各地的企业造成了巨大的损失。在日常业务过程中，越来越多的分散在不同地理位置的新员工共享各种物品的使用，从工具、演示套件、便携式医疗设备、IT或服务卡车卷到存放的箱子。当某样东西不见了，工作就无法完成。生产线停工。当医疗设备不在应有的位置时，生命甚至可能受到威胁。总部位于伦敦的初创企业Reelables发明了一种智能标签，可以完全自动跟踪工作中的物品。它只是像条形码标签一样剥落和粘在一起。员工通过手机后台运行的应用程序收集有关工作资产的信息。无需扫描。这款独特的软件让每个员工都能随时知道自己的东西在哪里。它还能让他们找到东西，看看他们的同事有什么，什么时候有。市场上现有的资产跟踪解决方案需要大量的工作，或者使用和安装成本非常高。它们的范围从简单的条形码标签到非常昂贵的具有gps功能的设备。RFID解决方案，如条形码，需要手动扫描物品或在天花板或门口安装大功率天线。Reelables智能标签解决了一个中端解决方案，允许更广泛的市场实施。使这一切成为可能的关键创新是一种制造工艺，它可以在薄塑料薄膜上直接形成电池和无线电路。智能标签的最初工作原型是用与普通薯片袋相同的材料制成的。然而，额外的成本和外部电池的尺寸是大规模生产的障碍。这项可行性研究与过程创新中心和数字弹射器合作，旨在展示一种改变游戏规则的新技术，用于形成电路电池。该团队打算证明，通过电化学涂层和层压两层塑料薄膜，可以形成一个极低成本的电池，为无线标签供电超过一年。该团队进一步打算展示一系列新的应用程序、业务效率和由创新支持的用例，这些创新反过来又推动了经济增长。

When something goes missing at home, like your keys, it's an annoying program. When things get misplaced or lost at work, it's a real problem that costs businesses across the world a lot of money.In the course of everyday business, a growing new workforce of geographically disperse employees share use of things ranging from tools, demo kits, equipment for portable medical use, IT, or service truck-rolls, to boxes put into storage. When something goes missing, work doesn't get done. Production lines go down. Lives can even be at stake when medical equipment isn't where it's supposed to be.Reelables, a London-based start-up, has invented a smart label to make tracking things at work completely automatic. It simply peels and sticks like a barcode label. Employees gather information about assets at work with their phones running an app in the background. No scanning required. The unique software provides every employee the ability to know where all their things are at any moment. It also enables them to find things, see what their co-workers have, and when they had it.Existing asset tracking solutions on the market require a lot of work or are very costly to use and install. They range from simple barcode labels to very expensive GPS-enabled devices. RFID solutions, like barcodes, require manually going about scanning things or installing high power antennas in the ceiling or doorway. The Reelables smart label addresses a mid-range solution which allows for wider market implementation.The key innovation making this possible is a manufacturing process to form a battery directly alongside a wireless circuit on a thin plastic film. Initial working prototypes of the smart label are made on the same material used for ordinary potato crisp bags. However, the added cost and size of an external battery is the barrier to mass production.This feasibility study, in conjunction with the Centre for Process Innovation and Digital Catapult aims to demonstrate a game-changing new technology for forming a Battery-on-Circuit. The team intends to show that by electrochemically coating and laminating two plastic films together, an extremely low cost battery can be formed to power a wireless label for more than a year. The team further intends to demonstrate a host of new applications, business efficiencies, and use cases enabled by the innovation that in turn drives economic growth.