Lite-On Mobile Develops Technique for Removal of Split Lines from Plastic Part Surfaces

Plastic is a great material for many purposes. Lite-On Mobile has a wealth of experience in the field, enabling it to offer products that can justifiably be called high-class. Surfaces can be made look and feel totally different to what we are used to when holding a plastic object - ceramic, velvet, shiny, color-changing and, even to the eye of an expert, totally seamless products.

Those are the kind of qualities that give plastic products a high-class look - they are exclusive and expensive looking, but still at an affordable price. And that doesn't go for just mobile phone covers, but for almost anything you can think of.
Kimmo Turunen, Senior Manager from LOM Plastics Innovations explains that Lite-On Mobile has developed a fast and cost-efficient way to remove tooling split lines from the visual surfaces of plastic parts.

* Split line removal is a technique by which the seams in plastic parts are polished away before painting. Plastic parts may sometimes have features like recesses and negative draft areas requiring the mould to be cut into several pieces, and that results in a small witness line on the plastic part. Split line removal is one way of supporting, for example, the seamless phone concept that is so popular today, explains Kimmo Turunen.

Split line removal can be done manually, which is slow and not cost effective. Lite-On Mobile's machinery has been developed both for single part and multi-part flow. Split-line removal can be done for ABS+PC and PC visual parts that are to be painted.

CNC milling is a next generation technology which provides high accuracy and a quality look inexpensively. Material removal is sometimes a necessary production step for a variety of purposes: holes for buttons, camera lenses, screws, etc. With some techniques, the desired forms are difficult or impossible to create in the moulding process, but using CNC milling you can achieve that and even take the design to the next level.

Just about any material can be used, and there are virtually no restrictions on mechanical design. It is possible to achieve sharp hole edges in painted parts, and minimize visible split lines in hole-areas.

These are just some examples of our capabilities in the area of high-class plastics. We listen and discover constantly what the expectations from the world and the customers are. New ideas emerge, more is to come!

Styron Launches Specialized PC, PC/ABS Solutions to Meet the Latest Trends in TV Designs

As a result of the trend towards thinner, trendier TVs, molders and OEMs are faced with an increased demand for thinner TV enclosures with better aesthetics at lower cost. Styron LLC announced the commercial availability of three innovative compounds in Europe that can help molders and OEMs meet these challenges.

XZ 92696.00: high flow PC/ABS compound for applications with high heat requirements

High heat resistant products for TV enclosures traditionally came with compromises in terms of flow, making them less suitable for molders wanting to produce the thin TV housings demanded by today's consumers. With XZ 92696.00, Styron has developed an innovative solution that overcomes the classic compromise between heat and flow.

The innovative PC/ABS compound has a market-leading HDT (Heat Distortion Temperature) value of 94°C at 1.82 MPa, making it an ideal solution for thinner TVs with high heat requirements such as Matrix-lit LED TVs. In addition to this high HDT value, XZ 92696.00 offers a high flow with good mechanical properties. This unique combination makes XZ 92696.00 an excellent choice for molders and OEMs wanting to create thinner TV enclosures for some of the most innovative TV applications.

XZ 92696.00 is UL listed according to UL94 V1 at 1.5mm.

XZ 92699.01: high flow compound based on PC/ABS for thinner TV back covers

The trend towards thinner TVs has also led to new challenges for molders and OEMs, such as the need for high flow products to create thinner back covers for televisions. XZ 92699.01 from Styron is an innovative compound based on PC/ABS with a spiral flow value comparable to that of ignition-resistant polystyrene. Styron's innovative compound combines high flow with high stiffness, making it a great option for molders wanting to produce thinner TV back covers.

Styron's innovative XZ 92699.01 compound offers molders new opportunities to create more cost efficient TV back covers compared to traditional PC/ABS compounds because:

1. It was specifically developed to be more cost competitive than traditional PC/ABS compounds.
2. Its high flow allows the compound to be injected at lower temperatures of 245°C instead of 260°C, leading to shorter cycle times and increased efficiency.
3. As molders can inject XZ 92699.01 at lower temperatures, they could save on energy consumption during the molding process.

In an addition to processing advantages, Styron's new compound also provides molders and OEMs with the additional design freedom needed to create thinner TVs with fashionable designs. XZ 92699.01 allows molders to better replicate the embossing of molds on TV back covers, allowing additional design options and increased aesthetics for TV back covers.

XZ 92699.01 is UL listed according to UL94 V0 at 2mm for black formulations.

XZ 94291.01: high flow, high transparency PC compound for thinner TV front covers

Consumer demand for trendier TVs means that molders and OEMs need additional design freedom and increased aesthetics for TV front covers. Styron has introduced an innovative transparent PC compound with high flow that allows molders to fill thinner TV front covers to help address this need. Using XZ 94291.01 results in fewer weld lines, making it particularly suitable for the 'back-paint' process, where paint is applied to the back of a PC front cover.

"The trend for thinner, trendier TVs brings new requirements for TV enclosures, and we believe Styron's renewed product portfolio is perfectly adapted to meet those requirements," says Tsuyoshi Okii, Global Market Manager Consumer Electronics at Styron. "Our products allow molders to produce thinner TV housings at a lower cost while offering additional design freedom and increased aesthetics."

Acoustic Polymer Foams Give True Theatre Experience

To provide effective sound insulation for optimal acoustics in the oval-shaped Genexis Theatre (Fusionopolis, an R&D complex in Singapore), BASF’s flame-retardant specialty foam Basotect® has been used by the engineers. The Basotect panels, surrounded by black fleece, are fitted behind numerous timber beads spread across the heavily lined and curved theater walls.

Basotect, made from melamine resin, a thermoset polymer, is a good sound absorption material and minimize reverberations occurring inside the theatre. Its characteristic feature is its three-dimensional network structure consisting of slender and thus easily shaped webs. Basotect’s open-cell foam structure makes it lightweight (9g/l), thermally-insulating and sound-absorbing material. This unique structure also provides the much needed flexibility to the foam and can be used at up to 240°C without any deterioration in performance.

Indian southern cities turning to natural gas

According to a top official from the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas, Bangalore will have CNG fuelling stations by 2012. Meanwhile, in Chennai the gaseous fuel will be available in the next three years thanks to a city gas distribution project, said Gail India Limited’s general manager R. Tiwari.

Chairman of Petroleum and Natural Gas Regulatory Board (PNGRB) L. Mansingh said that infrastructure to supply compressed natural gas in Bangalore would be in place in two years. Moreover, there is a Petronet LNG’s project, expected to be commissioned by March 2012, to establish a Bangalore-Mangalore-Kochi pipeline. Once built, consumers will have the benefit of piped natural gas delivered in town.

On the other hand, Chennai would be on the CNG map after the City Gas Distribution (CDG) project is implemented in the next two to three years. According to Tiwari, the CDG would reduce the nation’s dependence on petrol by 31 per cent and help save $87 billion of foreign exchange flowing outside the country through oil imports.

During the first phase, the project would be implemented in 17 cities through a Gail subsidiary, with authorization from PNGRB, reported the Indian online newspaper Express. The CGD network would create green corridors for distributing and marketing of CNG as fuel for vehicles (inter city as well as intra city) and piped natural gas for domestic and industrial purposes.

Ticona's Ultra-High Heat Vectra® LCP Helps JST Corp. Solve Weld-Line, Cracking Issues in SD Connectors

JST Corp., a global manufacturer of interconnection products, has eliminated stress cracks in its injection molded Secure Digital (SD) connector thanks to the superior weld-line strength and higher heat deflection properties found in inherently flame resistant Vectra® liquid crystal polymer (LCP) from Ticona Engineering Polymers.

"With technical assistance from Ticona, JST was able to switch to Vectra S135 and start molding thin-wall parts with excellent process consistency and good surface appearance," said Miguel Padilla, JST Molding Supervisor at JST in Waukegan, Ill. "Now we have the extended operating temperature and flowability that allows us to consistently fill these complex geometries while, at the same time, maintaining tight tolerances and avoiding assembly process issues."

When molding with a 10 percent glass, 30 percent mineral reinforced LCP resin with a distortion temperature under load (DTUL) of 248 degrees Celsius (479 degrees Fahrenheit), JST had been experiencing weld-line issues and occasional cracks that developed during the assembly process. JST needed an engineering thermoplastic with a higher heat deflection temperature (HDT) profile that could withstand the particularly challenging dimensional considerations and withstand lead-free soldering demands of this SC connector application for handhelds such as bar code scanners.

JST turned to Ticona for material and processing technical assistance. During molding trials, Ticona demonstrated that JST could make the successful material switch to Vectra S135 and eliminate intermittent fill and bowing issues its molder was experiencing with SD connector parts molded with the other commercially available LCP.

"Ticona designed Vectra S135 to meet the needs of customers like JST ultra-high heat resistance, thinner walls and faster cycle time," said Edward Hallahan, Technical Marketing Manager Ticona High Performance Polymers. "By switching to Vectra S135, JST also was able to optimize their molding process to reduce cycle times by 4 seconds."

As a member of the high-temperature Vectra S series family, Vectra S135 significantly extends the possible processing window with a melting point of 350 degrees Celsius (662 degrees Fahrenheit). It is a 35 percent glass fiber reinforced LCP with very low outgassing and high stiffness designed for use in demanding connector and surface-mount applications, especially those that must meet Restriction of Hazardous Substances Directive (RoHS). A unique polymer structure allows S135 to achieve a high DTUL, and process stably at temperatures significantly lower than other high-DTUL LCPs. It offers:

• A DTUL of 335 degrees Celsius (635 degrees Fahrenheit)
• Improved weld-line strength
• Reduced viscosity, which allows it to fill walls as thin as 0.2 mm (0.008 in)

Vectra LCP is widely used by customers to make eco-friendly connectors, bobbins, switches and relays that meet RoHS and European Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) directives. In addition, customers and original equipment manufacturers are striving to accelerate the production of green and safe products.

Teijin Sets 2012 as the Target to Launch its Bio-derived PET Fiber

Teijin Fibers Limited, the core company of the Teijin Group's polyester fibers business, announced that it will begin the full-fledged production and marketing of new plant-based polyethylene terephthalate (PET) fiber as the world's first commercially produced bio-derived PET fiber, in April 2012.

Named ECO CIRCLE PlantFiber, the new product, also available as a textile, will become Teijin Fibers' core biomaterial for applications ranging from apparel, car seats and interiors to personal hygiene products. Teijin Fibers expects to sell 30,000 tons of ECO CIRCLE PlantFiber products in the initial fiscal year ending in March 2013, and 70,000 tons by the third year of business.

ECO CIRCLE PlantFiber is made roughly 30% from biofuels derived from biomass such as sugarcane. Conventional PET typically is made by polymerizing ethylene glycol (EG) and dimethyl terephthalate (DMT) or telephthalic acid (PTA), with EG accounting for roughly 30%. The EG contained in ECO CIRCLE PlantFiber is bio-derived rather than oil-derived, so it helps to conserve fossil resources and lower greenhouse gas emissions. What's more, ECO CIRCLE PlantFiber has the same characteristics and quality of oil-derived PET, so it is suitable for use in many polyester products.

ECO CIRCLE PlantFiber also can be recycled using Teijin Fibers' ECO CIRCLE closed-loop polyester recycling system. Polyester is chemically decomposed at the molecular level by the system and then recycled as new DMT that offers purity and quality comparable to material derived directly from petroleum.

Teijin Fibers develops unique polyester technologies through "hybrid strategies" that variously combine the company's special expertise in biomaterials, recycling, functional materials and manufacturing processes to reduce environmental loads.

Warwick University's New Technique Could Ease Recycling of Most Challenging Christmas Plastic Wrapping

On average we each consume 120 grams of plastic wrapping on Christmas gifts most of which is of a type which almost impossible to recycle. Now researchers at the University of Warwick have devised a new technique which could process 100% of Christmas and other household plastic instead of the tiny fraction that currently actually gets processed - typically only 12% of such waste is truly recycled often and the rest is often put into land fill or simply burnt as fuel.

Some plastic still goes straight to land fill but householders currently spend a great deal of effort separating out the rest of their plastic waste believing it will be recycled yet typically only 12% of "Municipal Plastic Solid Waste" is truly recycled.. It is often simply too time consuming to separate out and clean the various types of plastic of their persistent labels or other problems, as that requires significant laborious human intervention. An additional problem is that often objects are made of more than one plastic that would require different treatments.

However University of Warwick engineers have come up with a simple process that can cope with every piece of plastic waste and can even break some polymers such as polystyrene - back down to its original monomers (styrene in the case of polysterene).

The Warwick researchers have used support from AWM's Science City funding devised a unit which uses pyrolysis (using heat in the absence of oxygen to decompose of materials) in a "fluidized bed" reactor. Tests completed in the last week have shown that the researchers have been able to literally shovel in to such a reactor a wide range of mixed plastics which can then be reduced down to useful products many of which can then be retrieved by simple distillation.

The products the Warwick team have been able to reclaim from the plastic mix include: wax that that can be then used a lubricant; original monomers such as styrene that can be used to make new polystyrene; terephthalic acid which can be reused in PET plastic products, methylmetacrylate that can be used to make acrylic sheets, carbon which can be used as Carbon Black in paint pigments and tires, and even the char left at the end of some of the reactions can be sold to use as activated carbon at a value of at least £400 a ton.

This research could have a significant impact on the budgets of local authorities and produce considerable environmental benefits. The lab scale tests concluded this week have successfully produced distilled liquids and solids that can be taken away by the bucket load for processing into new products. The University of Warwick engineers are now working with the University's technology transfer arm, Warwick Ventures, who expect that their work will be of great interest to local authorities and waste disposal companies who could use the technology to create large scale reactor units at municipal tips which would produce tanker loads of reusable material.

The lead researcher on the project, University of Warwick Engineering Professor Jan Baeyens, said: "We envisage a typical large scale plant having an average capacity of 10,000 tons of plastic waste per year. In a year tankers would take away from each plant over £5 million worth of recycled chemicals and each plant would save £500,000 a year in land fill taxes alone. As the expected energy costs for each large plant would only be in the region of £50,000 a year the system will be commercially very attractive and give a rapid payback on capital and running costs."