Functionality and versatility in electronic products

It comes as no surprise that a large proportion of consumer electronic products are made from plastic materials. Casings, boards and data storage materials are made of polymer to ensure that while they are tough and durable, they are mobile, and lightweight too. The consumer electronics sector is a major market for engineering plastics since this sector demands materials that exhibit dimensional stability, heat and chemical resistance, high strength and unique properties.

 

SABIC and Cima NanoTech, a Singapore and US-based company, jointly developed an industry first: a transparent conductive polycarbonate film that has the potential to revolutionise the materials used in consumer electronics, household goods, automotive, architecture and healthcare.   The material, designed to provide “next generation” functionality, has the potential to further enhance performance, enable new innovative applications and open doors for new product designs, Ernesto Occhiello, SABIC Executive Vice President, Technology and Innovation, explained. This could translate into faster response touch screens for consumer electronics, transparent “no-line” anti-fogging capabilities for automotive windows, better EMI shielding effectiveness for electronics, and transparent WiFi/Bluetooth antennas for mobile devices like smartphones, tablets, laptops and all-in-one computers.

 

“Transparent conductive polycarbonate is a breakthrough material that customers in consumer electronics and other important industries have been seeking,” Matt Gray, Director of Marketing, Consumer Electronics for SABIC’s Innovative Plastics business, said. “Our work with Cima NanoTech is strategically aligned with our commitment to continuous innovation in areas of importance to our customers,” Mr. Gray noted.

 

The collaboration, leveraging both Cima NanoTech’s proprietary Sante® nanoparticle technology and SABIC’s Lexan™ film, a polycarbonate material, has resulted in the development of a new series of transparent conductive materials that are lightweight with excellent transparency, outstanding conductivity and high flexibility. Cima NanoTech worked with SABIC’s world-class team of scientists to jointly develop materials that not only meet the requirements of existing industries, but also stretches the possibilities for exciting opportunities by breaking boundaries faced with current materials. The conductive SANTE network is also mechanically robust, thus allowing it to withstand flexing, stretching, torsion and tension for flexible applications. The substrate can also be thermoformed into various curved and 3D form factors.

 

Intensified R&D

Rising demand for consumer electronics such as data storage devices such as CDs, DVDs and discs have spurred the demand of building blocks such as polycarbonate diols market. They are good insulators, heat resistant, flame retardant and flexible which makes them highly desirable for gadgets. Growing electronics, automobile, aerospace, building and construction sectors will make the demand for polycarbonate diols grow further.

 

International companies have stepped up their research and innovation to create new building blocks and polymers for consumer electronic products. PolyOne, the US additives group, also suggested that it will spur its GLS thermoplastic elastomers for growth in the consumer electronics market to ensure wear and tear of highly-used products while Solvay introduced Ocalio™ cellulose acetate bio-plastic made from wood pulp, totally non-toxic in nature with a much less CO2 manufacturing footprint when compared to other products.

 

Regarding the product, Marc Michels, Marketing Director, Solvay Acetow said, “Solvay has over a century of experience developing and manufacturing commodity and high performance specialty plastics and polymers and the addition of bio-plastics is a natural progression. Our company’s renewable chemistry platform studies the potential of bio-based chemistry with the objective of identifying opportunities for improving, advancing, and expanding Solvay’s existing product offering to meet consumer’s demanding expectations in an evolving society.”

 

Processing efficiency achieved

ENGEL, manufacturer of plastics injection moulding machines said that the company has been using a lot of PC and PC Blends like ABS/PC and PMMA. Commenting on the benefits of plastics in consumer electronic products, Heinz Rasinger, Vice President of the Teletronic’s business unit at ENGEL commented, “Plastic is often injection-moulded and can be shaped into almost any design. Plastic cases are lightweight, improving the portability of these devices. They can be easily decorated via printing, IML or IMD processes which gives these devices an appealing look so people like to buy them. Generally, these materials also show a low level of interference with wireless signals, so they are well-suited to provide good telecom connections.”

 

Demand in the consumer electronics industry fuels improvement in both materials and processing techniques. Mr. Rasinger adds, “The consumer electronics industry is definitely one of the top users of plastics material. With around 2.3 billion mobile devices (which include mobiles, notebooks and tablets) and ca. 250 million flat screens that were sold in 2014, the consumer electronics is estimated to be amongst the top 5 users of plastics and plastic materials. The biggest user is certainly the packaging industry followed building and automotive industry. Amongst the consumer electronic products, flat screens for TV’s and monitors are certainly the biggest users of plastic material considering the size of the flat screens that have gone up tremendously followed by portable PC’s and mobiles,”

 

ARBURG, one of the leading global manufacturers of injection moulding machines for plastics processing, considers plastic as a versatile, lightweight base material whose properties can be adapted to the application at hand, offering freedom in product design and easy processing in injection moulding. The multi-component process, the overmoulding of inserts and process combinations open up wide-ranging options for manufacturing high-quality electronic products. The hotmelt process is another example of how electronic components or connectors can be reliably protected against moisture and splash water.

 

Dr. Thomas Walther, Head of Application Technology of Arburg stressed, “Most typical entertainment electronics products – from smartphones and DVD players to games consoles – are made from plastic or contain important plastic components. The electronics sector is an important industry for Arburg, alongside automotive, medical, optical, packaging and technical injection moulding. Overall, we see great potential in the three C’s of the electronics industry – computers, communication and consumer electronics. Automated processes enable cost-effective, high quality mass production.”

 

Arburg’s modular machine range can be specifically tailored to the individual application. The production processes can be transparently managed using the freely programmable Selogica control system. Arburg’s hotmelt process is ideal for providing a seal to overmould products where electronic components and connectors must be protected against water.

 

Such components are produced on a vertical Allrounder 275 V. Hotmelt is an injectable adhesive where particular processing conditions must be taken into account to create high-quality components. The special flow characteristics of the hotmelt material ensure that the entire overmoulded component is completely sealed.