![\"An](\"https:\/\/clemson.world\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/ITH-Flexo-electro-printng.jpg\")
<\/a>An energy-harvesting antenna produced on a press can pick up cell phone signals.<\/p><\/div>
\nImagine bandages that detect infections, flexible paper lightbulbs that screw into a light socket or food containers that notify you of an allergen inside. Now, imagine all of this technology is created on a printing press and that Clemson University is on the cusp of helping bring it to mainstream America.
\nThose technologies and Clemson\u2019s expertise in helping produce them are at the root of a recently announced $75-million grant that the federal government hopes will put the U.S. on the forefront of flexible hybrid electronics manufacturing.
\nThrough an Obama administration initiative, the Nationwide Network for Manufacturing Innovation (NNMI), a five-year grant has been awarded to the FlexTech Alliance, based in San Jose, Calif. The alliance is composed of a consortium of universities and industries, including Clemson. Its charge is to develop advanced technologies and processes to put the U.S. on the cutting edge of next-generation manufacturing.
\n\u201cWe know the science and industry where we can bring real solutions to bear. There are only a couple of universities that have the capability to do this,\u201d said Charles \u201cChip\u201d Tonkin, director of the College of Business and Behavioral Science\u2019s Sonoco Institute for Packaging Design and Graphics, graphic communications chair and one of the authors of the grant proposal.
\nCollaborating with Tonkin on the grant application were Steve Foulger of the Center for Optical Materials Science and Engineering Technologies (COMSET) and Liam O\u2019Hara from graphic communications.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe significance of the Sonoco Institute\u2019s role in this is difficult to overstate,\u201d said Foulger. \u201cRight now, one can\u2019t even imagine the limitless uses for flexible hybrid technologies, and Clemson University is at the forefront of developing some of those uses.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
The Sonoco Institute is a national leader in combining the synergies of packaging design and graphic communications.
\n\u201cTraditionally, people think of printing presses producing eye-catching wrapping for consumer goods,\u201d said O\u2019Hara. \u201cBut beyond color, we can also print conductive and functional inks to create electronic devices inexpensively.\u201d
\nOne of the keys to Clemson and the institute\u2019s role in this grant was the collaboration of the graphic communications, materials science and packaging science programs. The expertise in print manufacturing and materials science existed on campus; it just needed to be consolidated for the synergy to occur.
\nThat happened when the College of Business and Behavioral Science, the College of Engineering and Science, COMSET and the University\u2019s vice president of research helped fund a lab at the Sonoco Institute for these disciplines to be united.
\nTonkin and his associates are quick to point out that the NNMI effort to get these technologies to a commercial-use level is in its infancy. \u201cThe initial funding is the tip of the iceberg on what it will take to mass produce these electronics for mainstream America,\u201d Tonkin added. \u201cIt will take additional commitments from all those involved to realize how far this technology can take us.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Imagine bandages that detect infections, flexible paper lightbulbs that screw into a light socket or food containers that notify you of an allergen inside. Now, imagine all of this technology is created on a printing press and that Clemson University is on the cusp of helping bring it to mainstream America. Those technologies and Clemson\u2019s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":14544,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[6],"tags":[564,808,2391,2653,3299,3303],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-14663","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-in-these-hills","tag-center-for-optical-materials-science-and-engineering-technologies","tag-comset","tag-research-news","tag-sonoco-institute","tag-winter-2016","tag-winter-2016-in-these-hills"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/clemson.world\/archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2015\/12\/ITH-Flexo-electro-printng.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/clemson.world\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14663","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/clemson.world\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/clemson.world\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clemson.world\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clemson.world\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14663"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/clemson.world\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14663\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clemson.world\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14544"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/clemson.world\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14663"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clemson.world\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14663"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clemson.world\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14663"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clemson.world\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=14663"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}