Session 12: FE Tools & Methods

Modular R2R Vacuum Coating System Platform for Pilot Scale Development and Production
Wednesday, February 14, 2018
3:55 PM - 4:20 PM

Advances in high volume manufacturing technology have led to commercial production of ever-thinner polymer substrates and to the emergence of flexible glass and flexible ceramic substrates, all of which are candidate materials for vacuum web coating processes. Similarly, developments in applications including flexible electronics have led to new and more stringent processing requirements. These include particle management, substrate interleaves, thermal control, and increasingly complex multi-layered products which are often most efficiently produced by using different deposition techniques in a single web coater. In 2014, Intellivation developed the R2R series vacuum web coating tool platform to address these challenges. This paper reviews the modular equipment design and presents case study data from the R2R330 at the Intellivation Application Lab in Fort Collins, Colorado.