Converting equipment manufacturer GM has announced that it is joining forces with SCIPRIOS GmbH to provide tailor-made R&D coating solutions for both scientific research and industrial production in all areas of printed electronics.

Over the past decade, GM has successfully applied its deep knowledge of coating technology to expand into the solar cell and other functional materials segments with its own specialised range of roll-to-roll thin film coating machinery. As innovation in these markets continues to grow, so does the demand for expertise in handling the delicately printed, sensitive thin films used in printed electronics applications.

One of GM’s first customers in this area was the Solar Factory of the Future (SFF) at the Energy Campus in Nürnberg, Germany, a collaboration that is still ongoing. SCIPRIOS (Science-Printing- Semiconductors) was founded in 2018 as a spin-off from the SFF and the Bavarian Center for Applied Energy Research (ZAE Bayern). Headed up by Managing Director Dr Tobias Stubhan, the technology start-up provides turnkey pilot production lines for printed photovoltaics including printing, structuring, backend, and complete module processes.

“This official announcement of our partnership is based on several years of fruitful collaboration,” says Uffe Nielsen, GM’s CEO. “Earlier this year, we took the next step and introduced the second generation of our SOLAR Coating Platform, which has been developed with SCIPRIOS. We are now extending that cooperation to also include sales, customer support and service, and consumables, as well as coating workshops and demos.”

The SOLAR-300 is a unique coating and printing platform available in widths of 330, 500, or 550 mm, or in a custom size. Completely modular, it can be configured with multiple slot die-coating stations, gravure coating, flexo printing and rotary screen printing, and features the option to add laser cutting and inkjet printing in-line for manufacturing printed electronic devices in one pass. The machine has been designed so that is it suitable for both R&D and as a production machine, making it easy to upgrade to full scale manufacturing.

“Our partnership will equip researchers around the world with the tools that facilitates the development and upscaling of organic and perovskite photovoltaics, photodetectors, batteries, super capacitors, OLEDs for displays and lighting applications, fuel cells, smart windows and more for a brighter and more sustainable future,” concludes Uffe.