Inks are an essential ingredient to printed electronics, and without an appropriate ink, the system will not function. For Saralon, developing the right functional and conductive ink for its customers is its mission.

Saralon started as a spin-off from the Institute of Print and Media Technology (Technical University Chemnitz) in 2014. Initiated by Dr. Moazzam Ali, a leading scientist at the Institute, Saralon looked to address the “missing link” in printed electronics, finally allowing this technology to enter in high volume application areas.

“Our mission was not merely to become another major supplier of functional inks but to actively push printed electronics toward market applications,” noted Steve Paschky, managing director – sales and marketing for Saralon, who co-founded the company with Dr. Ali and Deep Prakash, Saralon’s production manager.

“For this purpose, Saralon took on the challenge to support printers in joint product development and technology transfer to convert them into printed electronics manufacturers. With our approach ‘InkTech – Printed Electronics Simplified Through InkTech’, we provide all inks as well as production technology for sustainable electronics to our customers.”

“Over the years, Saralon diversified its ink portfolio and expanded into several technology areas, including automotive, healthcare, wearables, and smart packaging,” added Prakash. “These developments contributed to creating innovative and sustainable solutions for smart and flexible electronics, making Saralon a prominent name in the printed electronics industry.”

In its early years, Saralon focused on the graphic print and packaging industry, as it had lower entry barriers and a faster time to market compared to more sophisticated sectors such as automotive, the electronic industry and health care, but it has branched out into new fields.

“Nowadays we are active in many new emerging technology areas with the need for new flexible, 3D and sustainable electronics,” he added. “Additionally, because printed electronics allows decentralized manufacturing, it has the potential to bring back added value creating to Europe and the US.”

“We have expanded our target markets to address the needs of modern industries,” Prakash observed. “At present we provide our customers in the automotive sector with advanced solutions including sensor inks, stretchable conductive inks, conductive adhesive inks, and heating inks. Two other main sectors who’re increasingly showing interest in our diverse range of Saral Inks are the wearables and smart packaging industries.”

Its customer support is a key differentiator for Saralon.

“We support our clients – from converters over Tier 1 or 2 to OEMs – in developing a customized solution and transfer the know-how to them for an efficient manufacturing. So we enhance their added-value manufacturing capabilities and establish a long-term customer relationship,” said Paschky. “In line with this principle, our inks and ink sets are fully compatible with each other, offering significant time and cost savings for R&D at our customer’s end.”

Paschky offered this example as to how Saralon works with its customers.

“In stretchable electronics, PE developers often need to print multiple ink layers in combination, one on top of the other,” he added. “To address this demand, our Stretchable Saral Inks, in fact, consist of a fully compatible set of silver, carbon, and dielectric inks. Saralon is not a general chemical manufacturing company where PE is just a small part of a large, somewhat rigid structure. Our focus is on printed electronics, which allows us maximum flexibility to quickly adapt and develop new products in response to rapidly changing market demands for novel properties, compatibility with new substrates, or enhanced functionalities.”

All of Saralon’s Saral Inks are developed for conventional screenprinting but can be used on other printing technologies such as flexography and dispensing. There is no need for special machinery or high investments.

“In comparison to subtractive manufacturing, printed electronics follows an additive approach,” Paschky observed. “Instead of etching out circuitry using corrosive materials, you only print what you need. The result is no toxic waste and reduced material consumption.”

Paschky noted that Saralon’s Saral inks can be printed on a range of substrates.

“As we are working with clients in various industries, we using quite a range of different substrates to print our Saral Inks on,” he noted. “From paper, PEN, PET, TPU, acrylic glass, glass to FR4 and even ITO coated materials, we´ve been working on all of these substrates. Depending on the use case we specify the right ink-substrate combination to guarantee the outcome.”

Prakash and Paschky both noted that innovation and service play a key role for Saralon.

“Innovation and Service is the key to establish ourselves as a major player in the printed electronics industry and always develop innovative solutions for our customers,” said Paschky. “Continuous R&D either in publicly funded, customer driven or internal projects are the base for our long-term growth strategy, allowing PE to play a major role in electronics industry in the years to come.”

Prakash added that Saralon collaborates with clients by developing bespoke ink solutions based on the specific requirements of their printed electronics projects.

“Beyond providing inks, we actively engage in customer support by assisting traditional printers in transitioning to printed electronics,” said Prakash. “This includes joint product development and training, ensuring a smooth integration of new technologies into their processes.”

Paschky said that Saralon’s latest advancement is Saral Copper 200, its new generation of copper conductive ink.

“Up until today, silver has been the backbone of the printed electronics industry,” he added. “But considering the high cost and price fluctuations associated with silver, the PE industry needed lower cost alternatives with comparable conductivity and reliable stability to flourish in high volume electronics markets. Being simply screen printable and micro-particle based, Saral Copper 200 is the first practical alternative for low-cost volume application areas such as membrane switches and RFID/NFC antennas. Localized customized and cost-efficient production will be then possible.

“Having that said, we are continuously working to adjust and develop inks for printing on various substrates commonly used in emerging electronics industries, such as thermoformable conductive inks for 2D and 3D electronics on polycarbonate, which is widely used in the automotive industry,” Paschky concluded. “With our solutions we enable various industries to think in totally different directions in terms of lightweight, flexibility, carbon footprint, etc.”

– David Savastano

BOXED INFO:
Saralon GmbH
Lothringer Strasse 11 – Hall L
09120 Chemnitz, Germany
Tel: +49 371 503 499 10
info@saralon.com
www.saralon.com
Major Products: Conductive inks