News COMMENT


Welcome to the August issue of Instrumentation Monthly.


Your nominations are in for the 2026 Instrumentation & Electronics Awards and now is your


opportunity to vote for the standout products, companies and individuals. With new categories recognising industrial AI, passive components, and academic support, there have been more nominations than ever before. Find out more about some of the nominees in our special Instrumentation & Electronics Awards supplement, starting on page 33.


- Victoria White, Editor C R


RENISHAW RECOGNISED AS AN ‘EXCELLENT EMPLOYER’ FOR ENGINEERING APPRENTICESHIPS


enishaw has been awarded Gold status in the Engineering Apprenticeships: Employer Accred- itation from Next Gen Makers, recognising the company’s commitment to delivering outstanding engi- neering apprenticeship programmes and developing the next generation of engineering talent. The accreditation reflects Renishaw’s ongoing investment in its apprenticeship programme, and acknowledges the collective efforts of mentors, managers and colleagues across the business who support apprentices throughout their development. It also recognises the contribution of Renishaw’s appren- tices, whose dedication, achievements and feedback played an important role in securing the accreditation. Next Gen Makers is a UK-wide initiative that brings together employers, educators and young people to raise standards in engineering apprenticeships, promote best practice and strengthen future talent pipelines across the manufacturing and engineering sectors.


“I’m incredibly proud that our apprenticeship programme has been achieved Gold status,” said Julia Russell, early careers lead at Renishaw.


“Having held Silver for several years, this progression to Gold is a fantastic reflection of the dedication and achievements of our apprentices, as well as the commit- ment of colleagues across the business who support and shape the programme’s continued success.” Renishaw recruited its first apprentice in 1979 and has employed apprentices every year since. Its appren- ticeship programme provides opportunities for aspiring engineers and technical professionals to gain practical experience, develop industry-relevant skills and build rewarding long-term careers within the business.


Renishaw www.renishaw.com BINDER PRINTS ELECTRONICS DIRECTLY ONTO THE COMPONENT


ontrol functions are moving out of the control cabinet and onto the field devices, while separate cables are merging into One Cable solutions: for years, industry has been implementing functionality in ever more compact and decentralised ways. binder is going one step further and relocating function directly onto the surface of the component. At the binder Innovation and Technology Centre (ITZ) in Bad Rappenau, the company prints electronically functional struc- tures – sensors, heating and conductor tracks – directly onto three-dimensional components. This saves individual parts, installation space and assembly steps, and opens up applications that are barely feasible with conventional assembly technology.


Modern devices are becoming smaller, more sensor-intensive and more connected. At the same time, conventional assembly technology is reaching its limits. Every sensor, every circuit board and every contact element is a separate component that takes up space, has to be mounted and represents a potential point of failure. On curved or irregularly shaped surfaces, conventional electronics can in any case only be accommodated with considerable effort.


This is where printed electronics comes in. Using the process developed at the ITZ, binder applies functional layers directly onto the component


– for example onto substrates made of plastic, metal, glass or ceramic. The company employs high-precision screen and pad printing with conduc- tive pastes based on silver, copper, carbon or PEDOT:PSS, as well as dielectric pastes. Multilayer printing produces conductor tracks, heating elements or sensors, including on three-dimensionally shaped and curved surfaces where conventional circuit boards reach their limits.


The applications are wide-ranging. In mechanical engineering, printed sensors supply data for condition monitoring and predictive maintenance; in oper- ating interfaces, printed touch and force sensors replace mechanical buttons; and printed heating elements keep components reliably at temperature. The benefit is similar in every case: fewer individual parts, lower weight, more compact installation spaces and greater design freedom. Function and housing become one and the same part. “Printed electronics shifts the limit of what a single component can achieve. We apply conductor tracks, heating functions or sensor technology directly onto the surface, saving a whole range of individual parts and creating intelligent components. At the ITZ, we develop these processes through to application maturity. The binder group then turns the functional prototype into a production-ready solution. This path from idea to series production


Instrumentation Monthly August 2026


is something pure printing specialists cannot offer in this form,” said Dr.-Ing. Martin Ungerer, team leader printed electronics at binder ITZ.


This is precisely where the strength of the binder group network comes into play. While the printing processes are researched and brought to series matu- rity at the ITZ, binder solutions handles the customer-specific implementation. Thanks to the vertically integrated structure – from cable assembly through precision-turned parts and zinc die-casting to the complete assembly – the printed functional layer can be combined with connectors and connection technology to form a coordinated overall system. Customers


therefore do not receive an isolated printed component, but a seamless solution from a single source, from the prototype to the series-ready part. With the ITZ in research and development and binder solutions in implementation, the binder group covers the entire path, from process development to the functionalised series component. For customers who need to accommodate function in the smallest of spaces and on demanding geometries, the connector specialist thus becomes a development partner for the next generation of devices.


binder connector www.binder-connector.com/uk/ 5


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