The European Regional Development Fund has announced £2.6million of funding for CPI to establish and run a new national technology centre in County Durham.
The Emerging Electronics Manufacturing Centre will provide state-of-the-art equipment for the integration of electronic devices including a Reel-to-Reel RFID inlay production line, producing reels of RFID labels at high volumes and Smart Label Converting line which then converts the RFID inlays into SMART labels, at a rate of 60 metres per minute.
Adoption of IoT in industry is referred to as the ‘industrial internet of things’ (IIoT).Utilising the IIoT, the CPI says, manufacturers will see greater opportunities to leverage their assets both on and off the production line. Additionally, it is claimed Big Data will revolutionise the way manufacturers collect, store, and retrieve information about consumers. The more they know about the end user, the easier it becomes to tweak the manufacturing process to suit the market.
John Cocker, director of printable electronics at CPI said: “Many challenges remain in being able to integrate conventional and/or novel components into the devices that will unlock the value of the IoT. The Emerging Electronics Manufacturing Centre is focussed on addressing these challenges and helping its clients and partners to engage successfully in this exciting new opportunity”.
The project will provide open access assets and provide technical expertise, offering innovators the support necessary to make the leap from concept to commercialisation by providing the opportunity to carry out feasibility testing, develop, or scale up their innovative electronic products and manufacturing processes in a low risk environment.
