THE Centre for Process Innovation is to convert some of its County Durham facility into a space which will enable the print, packaging and design industries to develop eye-catching products with new technology.

A selection of print processes and equipment will be located in a new facility located at Sedgefield’s Printed Electronics Technology Centre, which will be fully operational in early 2012. It is being converted from old office space to look at processes which are less developmental than the work currently being carried out at PETEC, and will be available for businesses and organisations from the UK’s design, print and packaging sectors to use for a daily rate.

PETEC programme manager Bella Green said: “Printers are being pushed a lot for their margins, but if they can go to clients and say they can do something like this, it makes it more attractive.

“This will work well with the other platforms at CPI because the other ones are developing better materials that will feed into the work being done at the new facility. We’re not looking at such high-resolution devices.

“PETEC did a market research study into this area and it came back very positive. We need demonstrators for printed electronics to show designers what the technology is capable of.”

The CPI focuses on high-value manufacturing as part of the Government’s technology innovation centre, and helps public and private sector clients to create new products. PETEC’s extension into the creative sector builds on its expertise in organic solid state lighting and organic photovoltaics.

The thinking behind the new facility, which is partly funded by the European Regional Development Fund, is to print electronic circuits using existing print infrastructure, allowing traditional print to link with digital technologies by putting electronics onto packaging or other materials.