First Annual Conference on Roll-to-Roll Manufacturing Hosted by ERC in Austin

Achievement date: 
2021
Outcome/accomplishment: 

The University of Texas at Austin’s Nanomanufacturing Systems Center (NASCENT), an NSF-funded Engineering Research Center (ERC), hosted the first annual International Conference on Micro- and Nano-Devices Enabled by Roll-to-Roll Manufacturing in Austin, Texas from December 15–17, 2021. The conference brought together researchers and practitioners from around the world.

Impact/benefits: 

Manufacturing industry engineers and scientists gathered to present recent advances and best practices in all areas of roll-to-roll manufacturing systems, engineered nanomaterials, and flexible devices. The three-day program included one day of short courses, followed by two days of technical presentations and poster sessions.

Explanation/Background: 

Roll-to-roll manufacturing aims to enable the faster production of products and to benefit from economies of scale. Although it is expected to be the future production method for a variety of next-generation products, roll-to-roll manufacturing suffers from technical challenges that prevent it from being widely adopted by industry.

The first International Conference on Micro- and Nano-Devices Enabled by Roll-to-Roll Manufacturing focused on sharing possible solutions to these challenges, bringing together subject-matter experts from academia and industry for peer-reviewed presentations and short courses.