Coatema Coating Machinery GmbH was awarded the IDTechEX Technical Development Manufacturing Award 2011 for its Click&Coat Plant Concept, offering a maximum flexibility and process versatility for sophisticated coating and printing processes in the world of flexible electronics.

The prestigious prize was handed over by Dr. Peter Harrop, Chairman of IDTechEx, to Thomas Kolbusch, vice president of Coatema, on the occasion of the Printed Electronics & Photovoltaics Europe 2011 event in Düsseldorf, Germany.

Once more, Coatema has proven that their concept, “From Lab to Fab,” which is adaptable to a large number of emerging industries, takes research driven developments to a new level and contributes massively to a rapid scale-up for taking real products to market.

The award-winning Click&Coat concept is based on the idea that each and every process step is considered a single unit, whereas these units can be arranged and rearranged individually, offering a large number of possible combinations and easy enhancement at a later stage. The unparalleled advantage of this concept is a maximum degree of freedom in the arrangement of roll to roll processes.

Besides the Click&Coat pilot machinery concept, the slightly improved Smartcoater - a full miniature coater on an incredible compact footprint, which was launched in early 2010 – was demonstrated. Live trials during the event underlined modularity and flexibility of this hands-on laboratory coating and laminating concept.

The Smartcoater features a 5-in-1 coating system capable of covering a remarkable coating media viscosity range, making it the perfect tool for slot-die, doctor blade, two-roller and dip-coating processes as well as for gravure printing operations on 150 mm roller width. The built-in drying system in the standard 500 mm version can be adapted in length and drying technology used and many optional add-ons make it even more valuable for ambitious research operations.