| Conductive inks, which typically
contain silver flake, carbon and other resins, have been around
since the 1970s, when they were introduced in keyboards and
windshield defrosters. But a fast-growing New York City company
called T-Ink is pushing the technology into new realms, especially
toys. Its inks have been used by Fisher-Price to make Sesame Street
posters that squawk, yapping Happy Meal boxes for McDonald's and an
inflatable radio from Toys "R" Us that has no buttons or dials. You
touch on a printed design to control the stations and volume. Last
year the private company saw royalty and licensing revenue of $20
million, up from $10 million in 2002. T-Ink
Chief Executive Martin Abrams says his company is trying to figure
out how to print a power source and speakers, too. The company
envisions military uniforms imprinted with cell phones, GPS units,
heaters and lighting. Other possible uses: wetness detectors in
diapers and talking newspapers.
Xerox is experimenting with its own conductive
inks for making electronic paper and circuitry for flat screen
monitors and billboards. Precisia, a subsidiary of Flint Ink in Ann
Arbor, Mich., has begun using conductive inks to replace copper
antennae in radio frequency identification tags. Retailers such as
Wal-Mart are testing the RF tag idea to track inventory in transit,
but the high cost per tag has been a problem. Precisia's president,
James Rohrkemper, believes that the use of conductive inks and
high-speed printing processes could cut antenna costs by 50%.
Blue Ramsey, a design professor at England's
Brunel University, cautions that the inks will remain a plaything
until engineers figure out how to print batteries and speakers, too.
"Toys are ... fairly low cost, and when they stop working people
don't get upset - they just throw them away, " he says. |
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