Print, Electronics, and the Internet of Things

You’ve likely heard the phrase “the Internet of Things,” but what is it, and does it have any relevance to the printing industry? The Internet of Things (IoT) is playing a key role in this year’s Industrial Printing Pavilion, so the answer is a resounding “yes.”

At the end of 2013, Gartner, Inc., forecast that the Internet of Things—which in its definition excludes PCs, tablets, and smartphones—will grow to 26 billion units installed in 2020, a nearly 30-fold increase from 0.9 billion in 2009 (http://www.gartner.com/newsroom/id/2636073). Other forecasters have been at least as bullish.

The Internet of Things can comprise a seemingly infinite number of…well, things, but among the most commonly cited and relevant examples for our industry are smart tags and labels such as those used in food and pharmaceutical packaging and shipping. Perishable drugs and foods need to be maintained at a certain temperature, and thus require a way of determining if there has been any variation in temperature. So a printed smart tag can keep track of the temperature during shipping, and a smartphone can access this temperature log and ensure that the “cold chain” wasn’t broken.

Ultimately, the IoT is about printing something more complex than just ink on paper, and exploiting opportunities in printed electronics and other sensors that comprise the backbone of the Internet of things can require more than just the ability to buy a new piece of equipment. However, that is not to say that it’s impossible to get into. The Industrial Printing Pavilion and the FlexTech Future Print Experiential Lab (Booth #4436) offer a crash course in how to begin to get started in this fast-growing new type of print application.

“There are so many opportunities for creating products that are part of the Internet of Things that are printed with electronic ink rather than your traditional methods,” said Heidi Hoffman, Senior Director of FlexTech Alliance. “And they can be using the same equipment with some sight modifications.”

The Internet of Things is a vast category, so to make it manageable, the Future Print Experiential Lab is concentrating on two areas of printed electronics and IoT-related applications. The first are medical “patches” that consist of printed sensors and conductive lines that convey a signal to the communication portion of the patch, which can use RFID, NFC, or some other technology. Virtually every part of the patch—sensors, lines, antennae, even batteries—can all be printed. At present, the only element that needs to be manufactured separately is the integrated circuit that provides the “brains” for the patch.

Another broad category of IoT applications is what Hoffman calls “structural health monitoring,” where, she said, “you print a substrate that goes on the wing of an airplane and monitors the ‘health’ of that wing, the forces acting on it, and when it needs maintenance. You can put a large sensor array on practically anything; a wing, a building, a bridge, a car, or a motor.” Data collected by the sensors can be sent to a database or even processed on the spot, with a notification sent if there is a problem.

The Future Print Experiential Lab offers presentations and hands-on demonstrations of a wide variety of printed electronics and IoT-related applications, as well as what opportunities exist today—and will exist tomorrow—for commercial printers.