Flexible and printed electronics manufacturers made some interesting headway toward commercialization during 2017, with promising products either reaching the market or getting close. Here is Printed Electronics Now’s list of Most Intriguing Flexible and Printed Electronics Products of 2017.
 
In alphabetical order:
 
• Bosch – EcoSilence Drive Washing Machine
Bosch introduced its new EcoSilence Drive, which includes its ActiveWater Water Management system that saves electricity and water. It also offers an OLED touch screen that, among other functions, allows users to preset the time that the wash cycle begins.
 
• Cartamundi – NFC-Enabled Game Cards
The goal of the PING (Printed Intelligent NFC Game Cards and Packaging) Consortium is to enable commercially viable production of smart printed objects through RFID. Cartamundi, the world leader in playing cards, is working with imec, PragmatIC, Smartrac, TNO and Van Genechten Packaging to develop these thin, flexible integrated circuits. PING received the Innovation Product Award from the European Forum for Electronics Components and Systems (EFECS 2017).
 
• GE and Optomec – Strain Sensors for Turbine Blades
Maintaining turbine blades used in industrial gas turbines is an expensive process. General Electric (GE) now uses Optomec’s Aerosol Jet technology to print passive strain sensors made of a ceramic material directly onto the turbine blades.  These sensors are used to detect fatigue and creep in the metal that could lead to costly, dangerous failures. Prior to its work with Optomec, GE would take out the blades every 7,500 hours; since Optomec started producing these sensors, GE has only had to replace one blade.
 
• Information Mediary Corp. – Med-ic Syringe Pack
Information Mediary Corp. received the CPES2017 Product Innovation Award for its Med-ic Syringe Pack, which uses NFC to connect a temperature monitored smart package with printed electronic traces, which records real-time information for each syringe, providing data on whether a patient is actually using the medication. With more than a million units sold to date and new products on the way, including IMC’s Med-ic smart blister packs and syringe packs, IMC is poised to help improve the health of patients.
 
• L’Oréal – My UV Patch
With approximately $31 billion in sales in 2016, L’Oréal is one of the five largest beauty businesses in the world. Through the L’Oréal’s Technology Incubator and its R&D teams, L’Oreal is always creating new products for the beauty market. One example is My UV Patch, a stretchable skin sensor that monitors UV absorption that L’Oreal developed in conjunction with La Roche-Posay, L’Oreal’s skin care brand, and MC10 Inc. Since the heart-shaped patch’s introduction in January 2016, the company reports that more than one million patches have been sold.