New-Tech Europe Magazine | April 2019

Latest News CIPPS ® combines real- time machine learning

“We are delighted to welcome our new clients. They have all recognised the potential of our investment and value us as a trusted partner with the resources and expertise that will help them develop their technology.” Sharon Boyes-Schiller, Chief Operations Officer at Silent

and AI with mechanical deterioration models to provide an ‘Estimated Time to Pipe Failure’ to utilities. The solution can be installed on existing assets and newly extruded pipes and supports pipeline operators in moving from reactive repair to proactive maintenance.

Wootzano is known in the flexible electronics field for its Wootzkin product, which is one of the world’s first commercially-available highly-sensitive and fully-compliant force and pressure sensor embedded with temperature sensors. Working as an electric skin, Wootzkin makes a robot more intelligent, with piezoelectric and piezoresistive sensing capabilities enabling it to grasp various delicate objects with greater ease. HP1 Technologies will use CPI’s facilities to continue work on creating a low-cost printable pressure sensor capable of measuring high force values. The technology was initially designed for integration into crash helmets, to collect data about head impacts and resulting head injuries from collisions for sports and leisure helmets. HP1 Technologies has also started work on a military helmet system. Following the proof of concept development of a 64 and 128 sensor array, the company has created a platform technology and is developing new designs for integration into client’s helmet lines and skull caps that can be connected to systems that enable data to be captured and transferred, as well as exploring with commercial partners, other markets including aerospace, utilities and manufacturing. PST Sensors has developed a suite of temperature sensing systems, which include fully-flexible and large-area temperature sensing systems and sensor arrays. At the heart of its product range is a silicon nanoparticle negative temperature coefficient (NTC) thermistor, which can be printed on almost any material including paper, fabric and polymer film. John Cocker, CPI’s Director of Printable Electronics, said: “Our Newton Aycliffe centre provides us with cutting-edge facilities, leaving us uniquely placed to provide clients with thin, flexible electronics at an unparalleled scale to meet future technological needs.

Sensors, said: “Working together with CPI over the last three projects has enabled us to move farther much faster in our funded projects than we could have on our own. “This is due to the deep knowledge and experience available through CPI’s team and the wide array of leading-edge equipment we can utilise for pilot line and prototyping work.” Mohammed Zulfiquar, Chief Executive at Datatecnics, who conceived the company’s CIPPS® system, said: “As a company, we’re keen to be in the most technologically- advanced R&D environments. “CPI’s new facility grants us access to state-of-the-art printable electronics equipment, not available elsewhere in the UK, as well as a wealth of knowledge from leading electronics and formulations experts. “As we scale our ground-breaking intelligent pipe monitoring system from the lab into rugged, underground environments, the knowledge and support of CPI will be paramount to our success in the coming months and years.” Tim Moor, Chief Technology Officer at HP1 Technologies, said: “The benefit of being at CPI’s new facility is access to technical expertise, print process and laboratory equipment during the front-end development phase of product innovations.” Mark Beckwith, Engineer Manager at Wootzano, said: “At CPI, we are aiming to create a process which is scalable. This will be done by utilising the state-of-the-art equipment and experts available at our disposal.” David Britton, Chief Technology Officer at PST Sensors, said: “In our first year using the CPI facilities at NETPark and Newton Aycliffe, we have successfully been able to not only complete the inward technology transfer, but to scale-up production of temperature sensors from batch printing of A4 sheets to roll-to-roll processing sensor arrays.”

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