Electrical Paper and Interactive Packaging
- a cutting edge partnership!
marieclaude.beland@stfi.se
How can you make electronics printable on paper? How can you make paper into an active electronic component? Can you then use this knowledge to build intelligence into a package?
These are some of the questions that Acreo and STFI-Packforsk recently agreed to collaborate on. The agreement signed in the beginning of the year gives four areas of collaboration, namely
Visual Interfaces, Sensors, Organic electronics and Intelligent Packaging, as well as networking with SMEs.
In the area of Organic Electronics and Intelligent Packaging, the goal is to set up projects at the interface between the knowledge platforms developed independently by Acreo and STFI-Packforsk so that new applications can be developed. One such ongoing project is Sustainpack, an EU project about innovation and sustainable development in the fiber based packaging value chain where packaging innovation is seen from a holistic perspective. STFI-Packforsk is within one subproject investigating how to use technology developed at KTH for fiber modification and apply it to giving wood fibers electrical and interactive optical properties. Acreo will then use the active material for printing electronic functions on the paper-based substrate. New applications and cost-effective solutions are just at the horizon.
Several other joint project proposals are also in the pipeline, with Acreo and STFI-Packforsk developing and evaluating RFID solutions for different types of products. Alternative ways for a product to identify itself and communicate information to its surroundings are being investigated. Many industries stand to benefit, from postal services and transport companies to logistic solution providers.
Together, STFI-Packforsk and Acreo have the technological know-how and development capabilities to make it happen!