UK firm spearheads sustainable innovation
In2tec Ltd., a UK sustainable electronics leader believes it has the solution to provide for a higher level of integration of electronics – electronic and mechanical components, sensors, LEDs, printed harnesses, and connectors in a single unit than is currently available in the industry. Moreover, one that is 100% recyclable for full circularity which means at the end of its useful life a unit can be ‘unzipped’, releasing its constituent parts, ‘unstressed’, for reuse and recyclability.
In2tec Ltd., a prominent design and manufacturer of flexi and Flexi-hibrid™ printed circuit board assemblies (PCBAs) and automotive electronic solutions has innovated throughout its 25 years in automotive electronics, pushing boundaries in process and placement capabilities within additive manufacturing.
The high level of electronic integration in the automotive shield presents challenges. Packaging electronic printed circuit assemblies (PCBA’s) means that the current solutions ‘wire harness’ multiple circuit boards together. In the automotive shield, these units need to be individually sealed to protect them against the elements encountered at the front of a vehicle; doing so takes up space in the real estate, added to which is the requirement for the mechanical inclusion of individual modules throughout the shield. All these requirements make the system complex and to some extent unwieldy in production, as well as increasing the risk of reliability issues with a considerable number of interconnects and units to seal. ADAS sensors require an unimpeded view. The sensing system needs to be as close to the front of the shield as possible, which is conflicted with the production methods of injection moulding.
A more growing need in the automotive industry is for reduced C02e impact and increased circularity at the end-of-life. The market has an ever-increasing driving force to increase sustainability to meet government rules and customer expectations. However, the developing integration of electronics in vehicles is at odds with the lack of scalable sustainable solutions to the PCBA. The commercially unviable recycling of printed circuit boards and assemblies means a sizeable portion of these are essentially shredded and then buried! This is a paradox to the global focus of delivering highly sustainable technologies.
In2tec’s latest innovation has been consistently developed across 15 years, its patented ReUSE® technology addresses this by providing for a fully recyclable ‘integrated electronics’ front shield. ReUSE® delivers fully ’unzippable’ bonded conductive traces, printed sensors, and electronic and mechanical components onto a sustainable substrate, such as PET, bioplastics, or nano-polymers.
These systems are referred to as Flexi-hibrid™ Electronic (FHE) Technologies. The flexible circuit board can be formed and laminated using ReUSE® bonding materials to moulded plastic components such as a one-piece front shield. The rear of the front shield moulding incorporates cavities to house the components of the Flexi-hibrid™ sub-assembly, therefore fully protecting the electronic components and sensors in-situ, whilst critically allowing full end-of-life disassembly and recyclability through low energy harvesting. The connecting system (or wiring harness) is also created using an additive process to the FHE substrate, creating a seamless and fully integrated interconnection system, thereby significantly minimising connectors. The In2tec solution is called OMSE™ (On-Mould Sustainable Electronics).
OMSE™ gains all the benefits of In-Mould Electronics (IME). IME is a technology that essentially injection moulds a 3-Dimensional shape around a printed electronic foil, embedding the conductors and in some circumstances electronic components into the unit. The aim, to produce a single part that reduces total component count in a highly protected environment. Crucially, OMSE™ is differentiated, by lending itself to the level of integration of multiple electronic components due to the circuit assembly not being subjected to high temperature and pressures of a moulding process. Moreover, it facilitates the ability to completely disassemble the unit into its constituent parts at its end-of-life, unlike an IME solution that has become a thermo-set synergy of parts rendered nearly useless for second-life. Uniquely, In2tec’s unzipping process – ReCYCLE® – delivered at extremely low energy levels, allows the electronic components to be unstressed in separation, therefore providing for full second-life use. OMSE™, is quite possibly the FIRST truly, fully recyclable ‘integrated electronics’ solution.
Neil Armstrong, Group Managing Director, In2tec said, “The more electronics are integrated into the exterior and interior of vehicles, the more we need to think about the impact of end-of-life recyclability. Ewaste is the fastest-growing waste stream globally. Over 58 million tonnes of electronics are shredded and buried annually. The premise that recycling electronics is a good thing, the way we do it today, does not hold true. We need to understand solutions for full circularity, to reuse at the end-of-life the parts that make up the virgin unit. We need to work together to preserve our world’s finite resources, with the ever-increasing appetite to use electronics it’s time to move the game on.”
