Smart Surface Technology

Taking a shine to plastics

Flat light-generating plastic parts offering three-dimensional moldability are used in this heating/ventilation system control panel for a car interior.

A printed Makrofol® / Bayfol® film forms the "smart" outer skin of the plastic component. Beneath this is a multi-layer electrode system that produces cold light when a voltage is applied a phenomenon known as electroluminescence. The development is the result of close cooperation between Bayer MaterialScience and the Swiss company Lumitec AG.
Light from a film
These flat, readily moldable light-generating plastic parts produce a bright, uniform light while using hardly any energy (there's no bulb or light-emitting diode involved) and have an very long service life. The team responsible for this development headed by Eckard Foltin in the Creative Center at Bayer MaterialScience has succeeded in pioneering a new technology with a huge market potential. In view of their obvious advantages and the prospects for commercial success, Bayer decided to enter this development for the 2002 German Industry Innovation Prize. A justified decision, as it turned out, with the project making it through to the final stage of the competition, and the German economics journal "Wirtschaftswoche" devoting an in-depth article to the topic in its Innovation Prize special issue.