Screen Printing - October/November 2019 - 22

GROWTH IN
WEARABLE
TECHNOLOGIES

Futuristic wearable tech is available now - and there's
a place for screen printers in the expansive market.
EILEEN FRITSCH

A

ccording to the IDTechEx report "Wearables Technology
Forecast 2019-2029," the total market for wearable technology
products has doubled from $25 billion per year in 2014 to
$50 billion annually in 2019. While some revenues come from
long-established devices such as hearing aids and insulin
pumps, other growth stems from newer applications including
smartwatches, VR and AR gaming and training accessories,
and remote monitoring devices for healthcare.
As IDTechEx analyst James Hayward observes, over the past
five years "Wearable technology has experienced a turbulent
journey, with a meteoric rise in hype, accompanied by billions
of dollars of funding, tens of thousands of new patents filed,
hundreds of new companies, and thousands of new products."
While some start-up companies have disappeared and others have changed strategy, progress continues to be made in
developing and testing products, building strategic alliances,
and getting new products to market.

SCREEN PRINTERS AS PROBLEM SOLVERS
Screen-printing companies that have expertise in printed
electronics and membrane switches have benefitted from the
explosion of interest in developing new wearable technologies.
Businesses such as ECI Screen Print, Butler Technologies,
and Creative Materials offer technical consulting services
to entrepreneurs who want to make working prototypes of
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SCREENPRINTING

wearables that can be tested for durability and demonstrated
to regulatory agencies, potential investors, and early adopters.
If a new product garners enough interest and funding,
the screen-printing firm that created the prototypes is well
positioned to be a contract manufacturer of the electronic
components that will be integrated into wearables sold to
consumers, healthcare facilities, and enterprises.
According to Ed Cook of ECI Screen Print (eciscreenprint.
com), many designers, doctors, and entrepreneurs who have
great ideas for new wearable technologies often don't know
much about manufacturing processes.
So, ECI Screen Print helps device inventors understand why
the screen-printing process is ideal for sensor and electronic
products. For one thing, the ink deposition thickness that can
be achieved is far superior to any other printing method or
deposition process. Screen-printing inks and binders are more
durable, and specialized coatings can be developed depending
on the requirements of the product.
The project teams at ECI Screen Print work with product
engineers, doctors, and designers to find the proper ink/gel ratios
and formulate conductive pastes and inks that will achieve the
performance and reliability requirements of the proposed device.
On their website, Butler Technologies (butlertechnologies.
com) outlines a 12-step process for taking an inventor's idea
from initial concept to prototype production, customer validation, and large-scale manufacturing. The process includes
signing a non-disclosure agreement to protect the client's
ideas until the product is ready to go to market.

SIGNS OF PROGRESS
The IDTechEx Wearables Technology Forecast discusses 48
different wearable technologies in five key sectors:
http://eciscreenprint.com http://eciscreenprint.com http://butlertechnologies.com http://butlertechnologies.com
Screen Printing - October/November 2019

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