Standard-related activities have been carried out since the beginning of the MADRAS project, identifying existing related standards.
Now is time to take another step forward and leave some more footprints. The knowledge and good practices learnt during the project can be useful for other industrial and social players, even in different sectors.
Standards codify knowledge, so any interested party can have access to it. Standardisation is, thus, a tool that research and innovation projects can use to transfer this knowledge, specially when aiming at the industry, public administrations and society.
And this is not the only reason to use it. ‘Standards build trust’ – This is a slogan from the European Standardisation Organisations, CEN-CENELEC, based on the fact that compliance with standards enhances the confidence of users and customers and supports European policies and international trade, being fundamental in the development of a European single market.
Applied to European research and innovation initiatives like MADRAS, the fact that new standards cover some of the project outcomes is an argument to speed up their market success.
This is the message disseminated by CEN-CENELEC within the Standards+Innovation initiative and supported by the European Union, when asking for contributions to standardisation in many of the research and innovation funding calls requirements.
But how to put this into practice?
The standardisation system has many options which can accommodate different needs. In the framework of research and innovation projects, where emerging and innovative knowledge mixes with tight time constraints, one of the preferred options is the elaboration of fast-track and reduced consensus documents, such as the CEN-CENELEC Workshop Agreements (CWAs).
A CWA is a kind of a pre-standard, quickly developed in a group of volunteering interested parties. It is especially suitable for putting emerging knowledge into the market and checking its acceptance in practice, allowing in that case to take a first step towards a full European or International Standard. So far, it has been increasingly being used by many European-funded projects.
In MADRAS, a CEN-CENELEC workshop was celebrated to develop three CWAs related to In Mould Electronics and the design of antennas:
Injection moulding on hibridised rigid control units on flexible substrates
The aim is to establish best practices for hybridisation and injection moulding of rigid control units on in-mould flexible devices. Procedures for the accurate attachment, for the alignment of the control unit on the substrate with the injection mould and for a reliable plastic over-moulding process are defined. Reproducibility, yield, and cost-effectiveness are evaluated.
Integration of PI-based flexible electronics on conformable plastic substrate
This agreement has the objective to establish a common requirement to integrate a device stack fabricated on polymide (PI) carrier onto a plastic substrate suitable for in-mould processing as polycarbonate (PC).
Design rules for simulations of in-mould antennas
The aim is to define best practices on the design of printed ultra-high frequency (UWF) and ultra-wide band (UWB) antennas by simulation considering the presence of a thermoplastic polyeurethane (TPU) layer.
About the author
Francisco Arribas, Programme Manager for fuels, machinery, entertainment and aeronautical sectors at the Standardisation Department of UNE since 2004.
- B.A. Industrial Mechanical Engineer with specialization in Mechanical Engineering and calculation by the University of Salamanca, Spain.
- Secretary of CEN/TC 334 and CEN TC 433 WG 4
- Responsible for the standardisation activities in the FP- projects “TIRAMISU” and “D-BOX” and H2020-project “BIONIC AIRCRAFT”.
- Participation in the RPAS Advisory Technical Commission of the Spanish Aviation Safety Agency (AESA)
- Experience in glass processing industry as production manager and technical project manager.
The Spanish Association for Standardisation, UNE, is legally designated as the National Standardisation Body of Spain. It is the national representative at the European (CEN and CENELEC), International (ISO and IEC) and Pan-American (COPANT) Standards Organizations, and member of the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI).
