Printed electronics and digital technology offer breakthrough solution for adult care market. Henkel has signed a joint marketing and development agreement with Smartz AG. This allows the partners to offer hygiene product manufacturers new, market-ready digital health products, enabled by printed electronics.
Together, both companies are able to create smart hygiene products that can sense when a wearer needs to be changed or moved, supporting and unburdening medical personnel. With an ageing population and increasing demands for adult care, such solutions provide an effective way to offer improved performance that simplifies the tasks of caregivers. At the same time, it provides dependent people with a less intrusive service and further protection.
For Henkel, this is a pillar in its growth strategy for the smart solutions and data-driven services market. This solution provides manufacturers of hygiene products with smart capabilities that can be integrated into existing product designs and produced on a large scale. Through the partnership agreement, the companies will also jointly develop future generations of smart care products and new applications relating to digital health.
By offering a full smart adult care solution, conventional incontinence products, such as adult diapers, can be transformed into smart, connected hygiene products. Using conductive inks from Henkel, the sensing material can be printed into the material for the incontinence product at the time of manufacture. Manufacturers can integrate this added functionality to conventional hygiene products within the existing manufacturing infrastructure.
Yet, it helps healthcare or care providers to quickly realize cost savings by avoiding unnecessary checking and product changes. This also helps to avoid additional inconvenience or even distress that individuals may experience when action is taken needlessly or when it is delayed. This is especially true for patients unable to communicate their needs. Timely changes and regular repositioning support the prevention of dermatitis, bed sore and urinary tract infections, which are often associated with incontinence patients.
