Sweden-PEA Manufacturing, the test environment for the production of Printed electronics in Norrköping, Sweden, has been designated European “pilot line demonstrator” and will serve as a model for future development. PEA Manufacturing will therefore be the subject of studies on how to create and develop a successful test environment for development of prototypes as well as production.

The project mKETs Pilot line will be in operation throughout 2014 with the express purpose of communicating lessons learned and knowledge gained from PEA Manufacturing to the rest of the EU. The overall objective of the project is to identify how Pilot production plants can help to bridge the gap between research and the manufacture of new products which will create growth in the EU. 

Göran Gustafsson, Head of Department of Printed Electronics at Acreo Swedish ICT and Tommy Höglund, Project Manager for Printed Electronics Arena, PEA, were responsible for submitting the application. This project means that Norrköping and Sweden will have influence on how central policies around test environments for pilot production in the EU are designed.
 
Both Ruud Baartmans, the Project Manager of the MKPL Project and Mauritx Butter, the Scientific Coordinator have high expectations. PEA Manufacturing is one of four demonstration projects selected by the European Commission. As far as the Project’s Steering Committee, which had an advisory role and assessed the applications, was concerned, it was clear that PEA Manufacturing addressed several key technologies in an advanced stage of production environment. In addition, they regarded PEA Manufacturing as having a good collaboration environment that was very close to prototype development in a “real” industrial environment. Acreo’s application for PEA Manufacturing received the highest score of the ten candidates. “Our expectations are high but we are confident that the project will be successful.”
 
For more information, visit www.acreo.se/groups/pea-m.