Drawing on its industrial know-how in formulation, printing and high-precision coating, ARMOR GROUP has created a new subsidiary, ARMOR SMART FILMS, devoted to printing and coating complex active materials on various types of substrates. The teams and manufacturing equipment have been set up and have already started to design and produce these functionalised surfaces for key sectors such as MedTech, GreenTech and information and communication technology (ICT).
ARMOR GROUP has stepped up the introduction of its smart films activity, which was being developed ‘under wraps’ in the last few years, with the launch of its new ARMOR SMART FILMS subsidiary a few months ago. This new business, which already has its own dedicated teams, including recently appointed Fabien Resweber as Business Development Manager, can take advantage of existing speciality coating and screen-printing equipment, whilst planning to invest in new resources over the coming years.
Serving a wide range of sectors
A wide range of sectors, such as MedTech (medical technology companies), GreenTech (environmental and energy transition firms) and information and communication technology can profit from the creation and production of smart films. The outlook for industrial and business development is highly promising, with applications linked to motion detectors, transducers, membranes for energy storage and production, desalination, capturing carbon and producing hydrogen using electrolysis. The scope of focus is extensive and includes piezoelectric films, films for energy production and storage, printed electronics, the formulation of complex materials and smart inks.
Fabien Resweber, Business Development Manager, says: “ARMOR SMART FILMS offers three complementary levels of service: R&D, prototyping and large-scale production. Confident about our development, we are aiming to triple our current sales by 2027.”
Investment in new flat screen-printing equipment
To combine multi-layer printing and mass production, but also to be able to print on rigid substrates or in sheet format, the company has just acquired a new large format flatbed screen printing machine – a printing technique based on the use of screens, enabling patterns to be printed with a high level of definition. Equipped with a drying tunnel and capable of printing media as large as one square metre at high speed and with great precision, this new equipment ensures that ARMOR SMART FILMS can now screen print very large volumes of intelligent surfaces. The machine also complements the company’s existing A4 and A3 flatbed screen printers. These small-format printers are used specifically for exploratory work and prototyping. With this investment of over €800,000 ($834,000), ARMOR SMART FILMS now has small, medium and large-scale flatbed screen printing capacity.
Pierre Guichard, CTO of ARMOR SMART FILMS states: “In an increasingly connected world, the demand for sensors is exponential. The specificity of flatbed screen printing means that several layers can be superimposed, enabling the production of complex, patterned active devices such as sensors. Until now, our capabilities have been on an industrial scale for rotary printing, but on a laboratory and pilot scale for flatbed screen printing. With this new equipment, we’re moving up a gear.”
ARMOR SMART FILMS will exhibit at LOPEC 2025, Booth B0, 409.