SABER PRINT
SABER PRINT is a cross-border collaboration project funded by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), the province of Limburg, the Dutch Ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate Policy and the Ministerium für Wirtschaft, Innovation and Digitalisierung und Energie des Landes NRW. The project is aimed at investigating the potential impact of smart (bio)-sensors on the process industry of the future.
Digitalization of manufacturing processes, commonly known as Industry 4.0, will shape the industry of the future. Constant monitoring of industrial processes by “Smart” machines will lead to a more efficient and sustainable production process. SABER PRINT is a public-private cooperation between the Ruhr-Universität Bochum, the project leader, Maastricht University and two industrial actors, Garlock GmBH and Yookr B.V. Within SABER PRINT the consortium will investigate the potential role of smart biosensors in the process of shaping the process industry of tomorrow. Smart sensors will be developed with the aim of integrating them into existing industrial processes, monitoring various crucial chemical parameters and communicating with other machines in the production line to adjust the industrial process based on changes in the observed parameters.
The central innovation that will be developed within SABER PRINT is a prototype sensor for monitoring industrial processes and communicating with other devices through an IoT web application (Yookr B.V.). The sensor design will consist of a flexible sensor sticker that can be directly integrated into e.g. gaskets (Garlock GmBH) in order to allow for online monitoring of industrial processes. This sticker will be coupled to an electrochemical read-out platform developed by RUB and validated in a laboratory environment. The Sensor Engineering Department will produce synthetic receptors for the desired analytes that will be integrated into the sticker-based electrodes in order to make the sensor selective for its target. The resulting prototype will allow users to monitor the concentration of analytes (e.g. glucose) in industrial processes in real-time, allowing for a more stringent control of the production process. This will reduce installation and maintenance costs and improve overall productivity in the process industry.
