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，这是一个令人讨厌的程序。当物品在工作中被放错地方或丢失时，这是一个真正的问题，会让世界各地的企业损失大量资金。在日常业务过程中，越来越多分散在不同地理位置的新员工共享各种物品，从工具、演示工具包、便携式医疗设备、IT或服务卡车卷，到存放在仓库中的箱子。当某些东西丢失时，工作就无法完成。生产线倒闭了。当医疗设备不在应该放的地方时，生命甚至会受到威胁。总部位于伦敦的初创公司Reelables发明了一种智能标签，可以完全自动跟踪工作中的东西。它就像条形码标签一样简单地剥离和粘贴。员工通过运行应用程序的手机在后台收集有关工作中资产的信息。无需扫描。这款独特的软件让每一位员工都能随时知道自己所有的东西在哪里。它还使他们能够找到东西，查看他们的同事拥有什么，以及他们何时拥有。市场上现有的资产跟踪解决方案需要大量工作，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GPS设备。像条形码一样，RFID解决方案需要手动扫描物品，或者在天花板或门口安装大功率天线。Reelables智能标签提供了一种中端解决方案，允许更广泛的市场实施。使这成为可能的关键创新是一种制造工艺，即在薄塑料薄膜上直接与无线电路一起形成电池。智能标签的最初工作原型是在用于普通土豆脆袋的相同材料上制造的。然而，外部电池的额外成本和尺寸是大规模生产的障碍。这项可行性研究与工艺创新和数字弹射中心合作，旨在展示一种改变游戏规则的新技术，以形成电路上的电池。该团队打算证明，通过将两个塑料薄膜电化学涂覆并层叠在一起，可以形成成本极低的电池，为无线标签提供一年以上的电力。该团队还打算展示创新带来的一系列新应用、业务效率和用例，进而推动经济增长。

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.