Screen Printing Company Logos using Electroluminescence

Today AMBRO Labs took the next step in our screen printing experiments using electroluminescent screen printing techniques.  In our earlier experiment our goal was to create a simple shape and illuminate it on a T-Shirt using EL. Today our goal was to create a company logo using the same process.  Our goal of screen printing company logos using Electroluiminescence has been a bumpy road.  We weren’t expecting a month to pass between our first experiment and our second, but, sometimes that’s how things go.  Thanks to Brian Benchoff from Hackaday for allowing us to to experiment using the Jolly Wrencher, Hackaday’s logo.

I’m happy to report that we had some success, at least enough to keep us excited about taking the next step.  We successfully managed to illuminate the Hackaday logo using a modified process to the one that we used in the first experiment.  We are happy that we have successfully lit up a company logo, but there are a few areas that we have to continue experimenting with in order to make this a further success.

The areas that we have to address are the “blotchyness” of the display.  Unlike EL Panels that have a smooth texture and appear to display a seamless light, our experiment looks blotchy.  Part of this issue is that we’re screen printing directly onto fabric, and there are imperfections in the cotton.  But we also believe that we can further refine the printing process to eliminate this issue.

The next problem is that we’re setting the shirt on fire a little.  We’re using 130 volts in that inverter, and since we’re not electrical engineers, we’re experimenting by trial and error vs. mathematical calculations.  Clearly we can’t be setting anyone’s T-Shirt on fire.  So … we’ll have to work on that.

Lastly, while mostly stable, the circuitry is not durable enough to our liking.  We believe this to be the easiest issue to fix and will wait until we have a perfect working prototype to tackle this.  Durability and washability are going to be very important for DIY distribution.

As always, our goal is to make this portable and affordable for the DIY community.  Stay tuned for additional videos and experiment updates.

Wearable Electronics T-Shirt

Wearable Electronics Hackaday T Shirt