Sensory polymer composites are highly desirable for applications such as in situ and real-time production processes and structural health monitoring, and for technologies that include human-machine interfaces for the next generation of Internet of Things. However, the development of these materials is still in its infancy: these materials have been reported, but the large-scale fabrication of polymer composites with versatile and customizable sensing capabilities has yet to be demonstrated. Here, we report on a scalable fabrication strategy that enables such materials by designing and integrating PCB technology-inspired large-area flexible sensor matrices into polymer composites. The integrated sensor matrices successfully monitored in situ the production processes and structural health of an industrial polymer composite: from the application of vacuum, resin flow and polymerization, production defects, and temperature distribution. Our results demonstrate that the proposed strategy is a simple and effective solution as a distributed monitoring platform for polymer composites and shows the potential toward next generation of sensory polymer composites.
Keywords: PCB technology; flexible electronics; process monitoring; sensors; structural health monitoring.