Subventions et des contributions :

Subvention ou bourse octroyée s'appliquant à plus d'un exercice financier (2017-2018 à 2018-2019).

Datec Coating Inc. is "a Canadian technology company that specializes in heating solutions that enablex000D
manufacturers to optimize the performance of their products". Their core business lies around their patentedx000D
unique thick film technology involving a processing temperature under 400°C that enables printing heatingx000D
elements directly onto a wide range of materials, including low melting point materials, such as aluminum, andx000D
materials where thermal expansion mismatch would be a severe issue with other processes, such as mica,x000D
giving its customers a unique design flexibility for a wide-range of application and products. While manyx000D
possible new applications of Datec thick film process are envisioned, the technology is limited by drifts in thex000D
resistance of their resistive heaters. While mostly benign for their present line of business, this drift, could bex000D
detrimental to some of Datec's prospective customers' applications. During the Engage project with Datec thatx000D
has been recently completed, a thorough investigation on the nature of the resistance drift in Datec's printedx000D
heater was performed. Structural and chemical analysis of Datec's printed resistors, performed by X-rayx000D
diffractometry, Raman spectroscopy, and thermo-gravimetric analysis, lead to the development of a theoryx000D
involving the presence of metastable transition components and their hydration when exposed to atmosphericx000D
humidity. Once the cause of the resistance drift was identified, preliminary investigations on possible solutionsx000D
were performed and a limited number of viable solutions proposed. Initial results on the first two solutionsx000D
proposed revealed that these ideas lead to appreciable improvements in the resistor structure and performances.x000D
The objective of this continuing project is now to implement the various solutions proposed, investigate theirx000D
efficacy, as well as the ease with which the solutions could be integrated into Datec's manufacturing process.x000D
The success of both the Engage and the present Engage PLUS project is meant to consolidate the existingx000D
collaboration in order to explore and develop together the rapidly rising opportunities for business developmentx000D
in the more general and very promising field of printing of functional ceramics.