Successful drupa for Coatema

Coatema Coating Machinery GmbH takes one week after drupa a positive stock. For the first time, the company presented itself in Dusseldorf from May 3-16 at the leading exhibition for print and paper as part of the Printed Electronics Pavilion. The number of new contacts and orders exceeded expectations by far.

Hundreds of interested attendees from all around the world visited the booth of Coatema to get the latest information on solutions for printing and coating plants. Here the visitors got especially enthusiastic about the wide range of Coatema: from the small lab unit up to the complete production line ranges the product portfolio for producing printed electronics.

A good third of all discussion during the drupa dealt with Coatema’s award-wining lab unit Smartcoater. Since its market launch in summer 2010 it finds favor with institutes, start-ups as well as with established companies. Especially the high degree of adaptability of the roll-to-roll unit, for instance by the 5-in-1 coating module, speaks in favour of the Smartcoater. There is no need to purchase additional modules as the Smartcoater is already equipped with the needed systems to produce all layers of a product. The small working width enables cost-effective work as only small amounts of substrates and chemistry is needed.

That Coatema also possesses this expertise also in the big format is verified by the PrintoCent production line, which was inaugurated in Finland at VTT this spring. This line stands out first by its dimensions: 11 meters long and 5 meters high. As inline process this line offers on two floors all printing and coating steps to produce large area printed electronic devices. This enables a roll-to-roll mass production from lab to production.

The PrintoCent line is equipped with interchangeable printing and coating units: gravure and reverse gravure printing, rotary screen printing, flexography printing and slot die coating. Additional processes such as hot embossing, plasma treatment, lamination, rotary die cut, hot air drying and UV crosslinking as well as an automatic registration which enables to apply several layers accurately fitted on top of each other are included. The line is operating with a working width of 300 mm and running with an operation speed in the range of 0.1 up to 30m/min.

That printed electronics is no longer a niche market is also shown by the next highlight of the branch which already takes place in June: the LOPE-C in Munich. Coatema will be also present at this exhibition with a booth, and will present concrete solutions via live demonstrations to a broad-based audience of industry professionals – above all from user industries.