Descripción del proyecto
Impresión por adición para una electrónica más sostenible
Cada vez más aparatos acaban en los vertederos. Los residuos electrónicos son una de las fuentes de basura que más rápido crecen en la Unión Europea, con un incremento anual del 2 %. El equipo del proyecto Sustain-a-Print, financiado con fondos europeos, trata de solucionar este problema con componentes electrónicos impresos que utilizan pocos materiales. Mediante la fabricación por adición, las tintas conductoras y dieléctricas impresas pueden hacer que los componentes electrónicos sean flexibles y estirables. Al replantearse la forma de construir los componentes electrónicos, los investigadores esperan incorporar consideraciones de sostenibilidad a cada paso del ciclo de vida de los productos: la elección de los materiales, su origen, el montaje, la técnica de procesamiento y el final de la vida útil.
Objetivo
Prompted by the dire forecasts for increased resource extraction and waste generation, and their detrimental effects on climate and biodiversity, a Circular Economy Action Plan has been put forth where electronics and electronic equipment have been identified as a priority product group with circularity potential. With an annual growth in waste of 2%, this group is one of the fastest growing waste streams in the EU, while less than 40% of electronic waste is recycled within the EU. There is a need to explore new options for electronics that are designed for reuse, repair, and high-quality recycling. To address this challenge, several factors must be considered such as the Industrial End User’s (IEU) specifications, Life Cycle Analysis (LCA) and the products end-of-life (EoL). Printed electronics (PE) is an additive manfucaturing method that can address these challenges and is characterized by its versatility, scalability, and low material usage, thus making it an ideal candidate for a circular production of electronics in general. Flexible and even stretchable electronics can be obtained with this method by printing conductive and dielectric inks on flexible/stretchable substrates opening new applications in the market. However, similar to traditional electronic production methods, current life cycle for a PE product starts with materials (substrate, conductive and dielectric materials) obtained through mining of raw materials. These materials are put into production lines, consisting of large volume analogue printing, gluing on discrete components and lamination processes. The EoL are either landfills or incineration, which in both cases, destroys precious materials, thus forcing the use of mined raw materials. The main goal of Sustain-a-Print (SaP) is to open new life-cycle routes and to design and implement sustainability into each step of the life-cycle. This includes choice of materials, their usage, their origin, their processing, assembly, and EoL.
Ámbito científico
Palabras clave
Programa(s)
Convocatoria de propuestas
HORIZON-CL4-2021-DIGITAL-EMERGING-01
Consulte otros proyectos de esta convocatoriaRégimen de financiación
HORIZON-RIA - HORIZON Research and Innovation ActionsCoordinador
2630 Taastrup
Dinamarca