European project on smart labels: our Piezoelectric materials in the spotlight
The SUPERSMART European project funded by EIT (European Institute of Innovation and Technology) and coordinated by Arkema with 10 partners* has won the 2021 Organic Electronics Association competition Award for the Best Publicly Funded Project Demonstrator. This project advances the emerging technology of paper printed organic electronics to the industrial phase.
Two innovative demontrators were designed and produced on a pilot scale: a smart label including an impact sensor based on Arkema’s Piezotech® piezoelectric material, and a smart counterfeit-proof label with conductive tracks and electrochromic displays directly printed on paper. The data detected on both components can simply be read via a cell phone app. Meanwhile, life cycle assessments (LCAs) and recycling studies have demonstrated the environmental benefit of these new solutions.
The smart impact sensor tag using Piezotech® material could find many applications in the short term:
- in packaging of luxury goods, pharmaceutic and medical products to record their exposure to impact, fall or vibration during transit,
- for people’s care in hospital and homes, where the tag can be integrated under carpets, floor tiles or parquet floors to detect falls or abnormal movements of patients or the elderly,
- in vehicles to track accidents, in the military to detect falls and blasts,
- in offices and shopping centers, to count people and detect their movements in order to adjust lighting, air-conditioning or heating
Our Piezotech® materials have been developed within the Arkema's "Electronics Solutions" innovation platform designed to deliver the growth of sustainable solutions in line with the UN’s SDG 9: “Build resilient infrastructure, promote inclusive sustainable industrialization, and foster innovation.”
" The collaborative work within SUPERSMART and this recognition by the Organic Electronics Community pave the way for a for a new sustainable electronics and a large number of new applications using our piezoelectric materials ".
~ FABRICE DOMINGUES DOS SANTOS,
PIEZOTECH® PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT MANAGER AND PROJECT COORDINATOR
www.arkema.com
