— By Plasteurope.com correspondent — 

Spanish plastics technology centre Aimplas (Valencia; www.aimplas.net) has unveiled a new electric scooter it designed featuring plastic components with embedded electronic technology, developed using a process called plastronics.

According to Aimplas, integrating electronic circuits into the plastic parts enabled the creation of flexible electronics and capacitive sensors that enhance both the scooter’s functionality and the rider’s experience. Key features included an ultra-thin central console with built-in sensors for temperature, pressure, strain, and lighting, all directly incorporated into the scooter’s plastic parts.

Susana Otero, lead researcher in Aimplas’s cities, mobility, and sustainable energy operation, said, “This solution not only reduces the number of components but also simplifies the assembly process and improves the product’s recyclability.”

The scooter also features touch buttons for power and light control, hybrid LED lighting, and a touch slider to adjust the strength of the front light. There is also an NFC antenna for system activation and heated handlebars that incorporate a heating film and a 3D-printed resistor made with conductive material developed by Aimplas.

Plastronics aren’t just for things like scooters. Otero said the technology could be used across a number of industries, including aerospace, home appliances, technical textiles, construction, and consumer electronics.

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Aimplas added that plastronics could be applied to processing technologies, including the synthesis of conductive polymers, along with the integration of conductive materials into thermoplastics and thermosetting resins.

Flexible printed electronics offer thinness, reduced weight, and flexibility, along with the development of a wide range of electronic components and applications such as polymer solar cells based on organic photovoltaics, organic LEDs, organic thin film transistors (OTFT), wireless antennas, sensors, and electrodes.

These devices can be inserted into smart objects, which Aimplas said can be directly produced and integrated using low-cost coil production processes.

Finally, in-mould electronics (IME) – the integration of flexible electronics into complex geometries and 3D parts – applies thermoforming and injection moulding processes to printed electronic circuits and devices to embed the electronics in fully functional, high value-added 3D parts.