PROFACTOR GmbH
From Research To Production
PROFACTOR is an applied research company with headquarters in Steyr and Vienna. The company conducts applied production research in the field of industrial assistive systems and additive micro/nano manufacturing. PROFACTOR acts as an interface between science and business. PROFACTOR has many years of experience in the development of digital printing processes. Both for decorative prints and for the integration of functional layers.
Running Projects
Additive micro/nano manufacturing supports the idea of “Factory of the Future” realising efficient, effective production processes ranging from nano scale processes over collaborative robotic systems to complex adaptive production systems. In this research areas PROFACTOR builds on years of expertise and over 1,600 national and international research projects.
TINKER
Autonomous driving and self-driving cars represent one prominent example for the use of microelectronics and sensors, most importantly RADAR and LiDAR sensors. The public awareness and the industrial need for further miniaturization of such sensor packages is the main driver of ongoing efforts in the automotive sector to be able to integrate such devices into the car body like in the bumpers, grilles and exterior lamps (headlights & rear lamps) instead of attaching them (e.g., on top of the car in case of LiDAR device). Safety (for the driver and others) is the most important key aspect of the automotive sector. Therefore, highly-value and high-performance RADAR and LiDAR systems are required for advanced driver-assistance systems (ADAS) as well as autonomous cars. Current bottlenecks are relevantly large size of such sensor devices, their weight and power consumption. Since these factors are highly limited within cars, further miniaturization and improving functionality and efficient use of resources is highly demanded.
TINKER project was set to develop a new reliable, accurate, functional, cost-affordable and resource-efficient pathway for RADAR and LiDAR sensor package fabrication, following 2 main objectives:
- Establishing the TINKER platform based on Additive Manufacturing (AM),
- Fabrication of RADAR and LiDAR sensor packages as use cases.
HyPELignum
HyPELignum (Exploring wooden materials in hybrid printed electronics: a holistic approach towards functional electronics with net zero carbon emissions) is a EU-funded project which will combine Hybrid Printed Electronics and forest-based materials (Lignum) to develop consumer electronics with net zero carbon emissions. The project aims to develop novel materials and processes for future generation of agile, functional and sustainable additive manufacturing.
TEX-Hype
TEX-hype (TEXtile integrated HYbrid Printed Electronics) aims at the development of novel technologies for smart textiles enabling seamless integration of electronics and vital sensors into garment (waistband of underwear) and develop remote patient monitoring system and predictive clinical decision support system which will be applied in nursing homes.
The project aims to overcome these barriers of manufacturability, by developing a hybrid printed electronic process which can be easily scaled to large areas and which makes use of methods already compatible with the textile industry namely: multi-layer inkjet printing, pick&place, knitting and embroidery to be able to realize the building blocks of future use-case specific electronic systems for vital sensor data acquision, data storage, energy management and communication.
iCanary
iCanary project aims to development a conformal air-quality sensors based on miniaturized sensor chip with matrix functionalized by different sensitive polymer nanocomposites adopting inkjet printing deposition process. The solution utilizes proprietary chip integrating the sensing functionality with computational unit, communication, energy harvesting and power management, all in one system. Such air quality smart label is integrated together with flexible indoor photovoltaic panel harvesting and storing energy from environment.
Proposed ICanary solution is not intended to be just a gas sensor, but it falls into the category of e-nose applications with possibility to tune the sensor array in a digital way to a specific application areas indoor/outdoor/industrial applications, agriculture, food industry and medical applications.
Finished Projects
PROFACTOR coordinated or took part in numerous international and national projects. Over past 15 years our teams worked in 7 EU projects, more that 20 national projects in the field of Additive Manufactuting.
InkjetPCB
Main scope of this project is to develop fully inkjet printed multi-layer Printed Circuit Boards (PCBs) including embedded passive components as a commercially viable process. As outcome of this collaborative innovation project, the consortium partners plan to deliver to their customers a ?Complete Solution? for the digital additive manufacturing of PCBs including materials, equipment and process guidelines. An increasing demand for alternative processes is present in the PCB manufacturing industry. Considering photolithography as main alternative solution, inkjetPCB will be: innovative, cheaper, simpler, greener, stronger and closer to the market. Compared with photolithography, inkjetPCB technology has a clear economic advantage with the potential to cut PCB prices of more than 50%. Moreover, PCB manufacturing by inkjet printing will open new possibilities for this well-established market.
Re-FREAM
The digital technologies that are transforming the fashion industry exemplify the changes impacting businesses and industries across the world. The mega trends in technology directly affect the creation, production, distribution, sale and presentation of fashion to consumers. Technology is finally set to disrupt fashion at every stage of the product lifecycle. Besides technology, a “new aesthetic” will influence the fashion of the future.
The three areas of research were carried out at the three different European scientific hubs Linz, Valencia and Berlin. Each hub followed one of the following research challenges:
- From analog to connected
- From 2D to 3D
- From linear to sustainable circular systems
Equipment
Our printer portfolio covers broad range of printed from lab scale to prototyping machines with support for many types of industrial heads.
4 Material Printer for Printed Electronics
Developed by PROFACTOR! Printing area: A3 297x420mm; Up to 4 materials printed at once with 1 swath; Compatible printheads: Konica Minolta KM1024i - XAAR 1003 (Nitrox); UV curing 16W/cm2 on 365nm wavelength; IR drying/curing 1,5kW NIR with full bed coverage
Süss LP50
Build area: A4; UV lamp 395nm; Supports industrial printheads - Fujifilm Spectra 128, Km1024i, Dimaitx Samba; Enabled with ADA - advanced drop analysis for waveform optimization
Fujifilm Dimatix DMP-2800
The Fujifilm Dimatix DMP-2800 inkjet printer is a cost-effective, easy-to-use precision materials deposition system. Ideal applications for the materials printer include: Material and fluid development and evaluation, Prototype and sample generation, Fluid and substrate interactions evaluation, Product development, Optimization and evaluation of digital patterns, Deposition of biological fluids including cell patterning, DNA arrays, proteomics
DragonFly IV (Nano Dimension)
Just installed !!! New aquisition, printer for fully printed Printed Circuit Boards installed at PROFACTOR. First in Austria!!!
PROFACTOR Video Collection
Whatch more videos on printing in the PROFACTOR´s Youtube Channel
3D Printed PROFACTOR Logo
Demonstration of 3D printed logo with embedded SMD component realized using modified PolyjetTM printer (Stratasys)
Robot-Based Functional Printing
Simple circuit board with LEDs and capavitive sensor to measure the level of fluid in a glass vase
Points of Contact
Pavel Kulha
Senior Scientist
Pavel Kulha is a senior scientist and project manager at PROFACTOR. His research activities include the design, fabrication and characterization of printed and flexible electronic systems and sensors using multimaterial inkjet printing.