Insights

Materials development renewing Finnish industry

The active two-day Annual Seminar (29.-30.05.2012) of the Tekes Functional Materials Programme coordinated by Spinverse, gathered together 250 experts and presented a bunch of new exciting results both from companies and research projects. Fresh result highlights include e.g. roll-to-roll ALD coating (Beneq), flexible & formable touch sensors (Canatu), novel solar thermal collectors (Savo-Solar, Aurubis, PolarSol), antimicrobial fabrics (Silvergreen), ultra-high strength biocomposites (Vivoxid) & injectable bone cement (Ozics) for bone fracture treatment, fibril cellulose for industrial applications (UPM) and as cell growth media (Helsinki University), and formable plywood (UPM Grada).

Green business offers a great opportunity to enhance global economic growth. Green growth leans on economically viable business models, which support the development of products and services with environmental benefits and reduce resource use and waste. Compared to traditional business models, these business models have a lower environmental impact. To these end, Green growth and eco-innovations have been given high priority on the agenda of governments and institutes such as OECD, UN and EC. In Finland, the Ministry of Employment and the Economy has recently started a strategic programme for environmental business.

Spinverse Oy has been selected to coordinate Tekes Green Growth programme (2010-2015; 79 M€).

The programme aims to support the generation of innovations enabling significant leaps in energy and material efficiency and to create foundation for the development of new value networks based on green growth. The vision of the programme is that Finland will have leading expertise and understanding related to sustainable energy and natural resources use. This will provide Finnish companies a competitive advantage in the international market.

The looming threat of a recession increases the importance of R&D funding, both directly from Tekes and by other means such as tax incentives. Recipients of such funding also have an obligation to communicate to taxpayers about how it is being used, even before specific results are achieved. When the message is clear, new and bold, the media writes. Also positively.

Beneq has developed an online deposition method for transparent conductive oxide (TCO) coatings on large-area flat glass to achieve a cost-effective coating process for photovoltaics. The high conductivity of the TCO layer is critical for effective current collection and transparency to minimize light losses. Now the developed process based on Beneq’s proprietary nAERO® aerosol technique has been fully integrated with the high-quality heat treatment line for flat glass CHF Pro™ by their strategic partner Glaston. The result TFC2000™ is a novel continuous offline production concept for high-quality TCO coated glass for the solar industry and other potential applications such as low emissivity coatings for energy windows.

Tekes continues to strongly fund Finnish Materials Technology. In the beginning of 2011, the Spinverse coordinated Functional Materials Programme choose ten new research...

Canatu, a spin-off from Aalto University (since 2004), is developing cost-effective manufacturing of transparent flexible conductive films based on carbon nanomaterials needed for touch screens, sensors and solar cells. Their R&D project done within the Tekes Functional Materials Programme aims to provide a superior alternative to indium tin oxide (ITO), which is brittle and difficult to process and based on scarce natural resources.

The Annual Seminar of the Tekes Functional Materials Programme arranged on 20.10.2010 in Finlandia Hall, Helsinki attracted about 200 participants representing several branches of industry and academia. The event disseminated recent research results of the Programme and provided an active networking and discussion forum for the whole Finnish materials society.