Printed Electronics

Electrically conductive inks are essential for the printed electronics manufacturing process that produces materials for several industries and applications in the health, hygiene, and communications fields. Henkel offers conductive inks filled with silver, carbon, and other conductive pigments for circuit, switch, and antenna printing that meet high industry standards. Conductive inks from Henkel are developed with functionality and flexibility in mind for a variety of printed electronic applications such as in-mold electronics or the production of electronic medical devices.

Resistive inks are essential for manufacturing printed electronic products that require resistance against high temperatures and electrical currents. Henkel offers resistive inks based on blends of silver, carbon, and non-conductive pigments to adjust resistance levels for printed resistors, potentiometers, and heating elements. Our resistive ink products are used for several applications in the medical and electronic manufacturing industries.  

Dielectric inks are non-conductive and insulate multilayer circuitry. This allows for circuitry crossover and multilayer applications and they are crucial for protecting electronic devices. Henkel offers a line of dielectric inks for printing dielectric layers, conformal coatings, and encapsulation. Henkel’s dielectric inks for printed electronics offer excellent flexibility, humidity resistance, and additional protection for improved strength and performance for multiple applications including keyboards, copper-etched circuitry, and hybrid circuits.

Henkel is a leading provider of inks used in electrode applications for medical or hygienic uses. Electrode inks from Henkel are based on silver/silver chloride for biosensors, ECG electrodes, and transdermal drug delivery. Henkel’s line of inks for electrode production are made with printed electronic applications in mind, especially when it comes to the manufacturing of flexible and comfortable medical sensors and drug applicators.

Henkel offers positive temperature coefficient (PTC) inks that are specifically designed for PTC heater applications. Due to its inherent safety feature, PTC inks are most commonly used for heating various automotive parts such as batteries, (internal) cameras, seats, and mirrors. With the need for high-quality automotive applications, PTC inks from Henkel are ideal for manufacturing lightweight, flexible, and durable products.

From baby diapers to adult hygiene products, Henkel is a leading supplier of materials for developing new smart hygiene products. For example, Henkel’s high-speed printable carbon ink is a key element in creating moisture sensors that are integrated into disposable diapers. Reliable moisture sensors that are both comfortable and durable are essential for making high-quality smart personal hygiene products. For flexible electronics manufacturing applications, Henkel can supply the right materials, expertise, and service that are required to produce these innovative smart hygiene products.

Read more

Formulated to be compatible with the human body and various interactive medical gels and chemicals, Henkel’s advanced inks are making modern medical devices possible. For medical electronics products, reliability is critical. Patient comfort, reduced invasiveness, disposable products, and remote diagnostics are driving development in medical electronics. Biosensors such as glucose test strips, EKG/ECG electrodes, TENS pads for muscle stimulation, iontophoresis pads for drug delivery, and countless other medical electronics applications depend on Henkel inks to provide accuracy, reliability, and compatibility. For example, one of our most recent projects has been to supply materials necessary for manufacturing a smart health patch with remote health monitoring capabilities. The smart health patch is being developed to help remotely monitor the health of Covid-19 patients. This is just one of the new advances for wearable health products.

Read more

Display technologies rely on many different printed solutions to help make the devices function properly and under very diverse conditions. Henkel has developed materials specifically for these applications including transparent conductors, protective topcoats, printable dot spacers, UV dielectrics, and fine line silver inks for busbar support. Henkel printed electronics solutions provide an additive, adaptable, and cost-effective alternative for many types of display devices. These inks, in combination with protective top layers, are delivering outstanding results for industrial touch screens as well as membrane touch switches, automotive touch screens, backlight switches, keyless entry devices, luminescent displays, printed LED lighting, and shielding.

Printed heater solutions from Henkel include PTC inks that prevent overheating and other damage due to high temperatures. Henkel’s line of conductive and resistive inks provides the required temperature and resistance level for low and high voltage resistive flexible heaters. Henkel’s LOCTITE brand offers PTC inks for several applications in the automotive, electronics and furniture and building industries.

Contact us and learn more about Smart Surface Solutions with printed electronics.

With the increasing need for high-quality printed electronic solutions for automotive applications, Henkel is constantly innovating the ways in which it can help in producing printed electronics for the automotive industry. Specifically, Henkel is innovating printed electronic material technologies for applications involving heating, capacitive/resistive sensing, inductive charging, and other functional uses inside a vehicle’s interior. Henkel printed electronics technology is at the forefront of helping develop technologies for connected smart surfaces in automobiles. This includes in-mold electronic solutions that can be formed into 3D shapes that are important for automotive applications. 

Contact us and learn more about Smart Automotive Interior Solutions with printed electronics

Printed electronic technology is key for the continued development of printed antennas for IoT applications. Henkel is a leader in developing materials for 3D printed antenna technology. This includes the use of highly conductive inks that can be formed into 3D shapes through the use of in-mold equipment. Henkel is a leading printed electronic material supplier for in-mold electronic solutions that are applicable for the continued development of 5G networks and other telecommunication technology.

Read more

Compared to traditional electronic components, that are commonly thick, rigid, and heavy, printed electronics are flexible and lightweight and, therefore, much more conformable. Printed electronics can be produced at high-speed, without increasing the cost of production. Printed electronics further complement traditional electronics production by being less time consuming to produce.

Substrates that can be taken into consideration for printed electronics include plastic foils, PCB materials, paper, cardboard, glass, ceramic, textile, and many other materials. Any substrate can be suitable although, depending on the substrate chosen, the specialized functional inks might need to be adapted for individual applications.

Printed electronic solutions can be created with diverse printing methods, such as screen printing as well as flexo- and gravure printing. The selection of a printing method depends upon multiple aspects such as the type and number of applications that are produced, the desired properties of the functional material, the production capabilities of a plant, as well as the time-scope of production. Henkel’s Printed Electronics Lab offers expertise and guidance for all steps of the application process to ensure the desired result is achieved.

Important industry partners for the creation and production of printed electronic applications are material suppliers, printing houses, and relevant IoT partners. Depending on the specific market, the set of industry partners may vary since different market demands require specific experts. In order to enable new printed electronics solutions at a high-speed, the Henkel Printed Electronics Lab goes above and beyond. It offers processing know-how, market expertise, and provides access to a large network of cross-industry partners.