The Industrial Consortium on Nanoimprint (ICON) is due to test roll-to-roll manufacturing processes for the mass production of products.
The consortium, led by the Institute of Materials and Engineering (IMRE), plans to manufacture items such as anti-reflection films and solar cells using roll-to-roll techniques. Their current impact on the consumer market is limited, as viable production processes to create large quantities of materials are lacking, states a report by AZO Materials. The new technique would make nano-based products more cost-effective.
ICON plan to introduce two types of roll-to-roll techniques - a thermal and a UV-based version. The thermal method makes patterns on the substrate directly, while the UV technique allows quicker processing at room temperature.
Documents and links
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AZO Materials report
Roll-to-Roll Nanoimprint Mass Production to be put to the test
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