Why is polycarbonate so easy to use? Where is the annual production capacity of 4.66 million tons used? Only by understanding the properties of polycarbonate can we know its application market.
Optical characteristics. Its light transmittance is about 90%, which is close to glass but lighter than glass, not fragile, and easy to process. Some people would think that this is the so-called "plexiglass", but it is not! The scientific name of what we call plexiglass is "polymethyl methacrylate". Although plexiglass is also a transparent material, and even its optical properties are superior to polycarbonate, its mechanical properties and heat resistance are far different than polycarbonate, and it is not fireproof. Therefore, in terms of overall performance, polycarbonate is more comprehensive and has a wider range of applications.
Mechanical properties. Polycarbonate is an organic combination of rigidity and toughness. Generally speaking, if a material is very rigid, it will be very brittle and will break when it is dropped on the ground. However, although polycarbonate has good rigidity, it is difficult to bend it, but its toughness is also quite good. Products made from it are not easy to break even if heavy objects fall on it. For example, a 4 kg ball falls on a 1.2cm thick polycarbonate board from a height of 0.1 meters, and the polycarbonate board can be intact.
Flame retardant performance. A big fire on Jiaozhou Road in Shanghai in November 2010 made fire and flame retardant materials attract people's attention. Compared with other plastics, polycarbonate has excellent fire resistance. Without adding any flame retardants, pure polycarbonate can pass a certain level of fire test. If supplemented with a small amount of flame retardant, polycarbonate can reach the highest level of fire protection standards without losing its excellent optical and mechanical properties, which is simply impossible for other plastic products.
High temperature resistance. As the temperature rises, all plastics will soften at a certain temperature and lose their use value. This temperature value is also the maximum use temperature of the plastic. It is conceivable that the higher the temperature value, the wider the use range of plastics. The maximum use temperature of polycarbonate can reach 120 degrees to 130 degrees. About ten years ago, the so-called "space cup" was popular. It was transparent and light. It was made of polycarbonate.
In addition to the four main characteristics mentioned above, polycarbonate has other excellent properties, such as electrical properties, dimensional stability, etc., which will not be repeated here.
Market and application
1. Sheets for the construction industry
Polycarbonate sheet has good light transmittance, impact resistance, resistance to ultraviolet radiation, dimensional stability of the product, and good molding and processing performance, which makes it have obvious technical performance advantages over the traditional inorganic glass used in the construction industry. The weight of the polycarbonate sheet made by pressing or extrusion method is 50% of inorganic glass, the heat insulation performance is 25% higher than that of inorganic glass, and the impact strength is 250 times that of ordinary glass. It is dominant in the world's construction industry. About 1/3 are used for glass products such as window glass and commercial shop windows. In addition, panels made of polycarbonate with a marble appearance and a low-foaming wood appearance will also show their talents in the construction and furniture industries. For example, the roof of the Shanghai South Railway Station, the skylight of the Chongqing Olympic Stadium, the windows of the Argentine Intercity EMU... are all made of polycarbonate.
2. Auto parts
In today's pursuit of energy saving and high efficiency, light weight and safety are important goals pursued by the automobile manufacturing industry. Polycarbonate has good impact resistance, thermal distortion resistance, good weather resistance and high hardness. Therefore, it is suitable for the production of various parts of cars and light trucks. Its main application areas are concentrated in the manufacture of lighting systems, instrument panels, Heating plate, defroster, bumper made of polycarbonate alloy, etc. Especially in the automotive lighting system, making full use of the characteristics of easy forming and processing of polycarbonate, the head of the lamp, the connecting piece, the lamp body, etc. are all molded into the lens, the design flexibility is large, the processing is convenient, and the traditional glass manufacturing is solved. The technical difficulties of headlamps. In Western countries, the proportion of polycarbonate used in the electrical and electronic and automobile manufacturing industries is 40%-50%. At present, the proportion of China's use in this field is only about 10%. The electrical and electronic and automobile manufacturing industries are China's rapidly developing pillar industries. In the future, the demand for polycarbonate in these fields will be huge.
3. Medical equipment
Because polycarbonate products can withstand steam, cleaning agents, heating and high-dose radiation sterilization without yellowing and physical performance degradation, they are widely used in artificial kidney hemodialysis equipment, and other operations that need to be transparent and intuitive , And need to be repeatedly sterilized in medical equipment, such as the production of high-pressure syringes, surgical masks, disposable dental appliances, blood oxygenators, blood collection storage, blood separators, etc.
4. Aerospace
With the rapid development of aviation and aerospace technology, the requirements for various components in aircraft and spacecraft continue to increase, making the application of PCs in this field increasing. According to statistics, there are 2500 polycarbonate components used on a Boeing aircraft alone, and a single plane consumes about 2 tons of polycarbonate. On the spacecraft, hundreds of polycarbonate parts with different configurations and reinforced by glass fiber are used, as well as protective equipment for astronauts.
5. Packaging field
In recent years, a new growth point in the packaging field is various types of water storage bottles that can be repeatedly sterilized and used. Because polycarbonate products have the advantages of light weight, impact resistance, good transparency, no deformation and transparency when washed with hot water and corrosive solutions, at present, in some fields, polycarbonate bottles have completely replaced glass bottles. What must be mentioned is the polycarbonate baby bottle-because of its light weight and transparency, it was once all the rage in the market. However, since 1998, studies have shown that free bisphenol A in polycarbonate will precipitate at high temperatures, causing damage to the endocrine system of infants and young children, causing precocious puberty, decreased learning ability, obesity and other diseases. There are also people in the industry who hold a different attitude towards this, thinking that all the current data are derived from mice, and there is no human test data, and polycarbonate baby bottles have been widely used for many years and have not received any bad feedback results. However, be careful in all things. The EU has banned the production of polycarbonate baby bottles since March 2011; my country also requires that from June 1, 2011, the production of polycarbonate baby bottles and other BPA-containing baby bottles be banned; Since September 1, 2011, the import of polycarbonate baby bottles and other baby bottles containing BPA is prohibited. At the same time, the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine also revoked the production licenses of all companies that use polycarbonate to produce baby bottles.
6. Electronic appliances
Because polycarbonate has good and constant electrical insulation in a wide range of temperature and humidity, it is an excellent insulating material, coupled with its good flame retardancy and dimensional stability, it has formed in the electronic and electrical industry Broad application areas. Polycarbonate resin is mainly used in the production of various food processing machinery, power tool housings, bodies, brackets, refrigerator freezer drawers and vacuum cleaner parts. Moreover, polycarbonate materials also show extremely high use value in fields such as computers, video recorders, and important parts in color TVs that require high parts accuracy.
7. Optical lens
Polycarbonate occupies an extremely important position in the field of optical lenses due to its unique characteristics of high light transmittance, high refractive index, high impact resistance, dimensional stability and easy processing and molding. Optical lenses made of optical grade polycarbonate can be used not only to manufacture cameras, microscopes, telescopes and optical testing instruments, but also to manufacture film projector lenses, copier lenses, infrared auto-focusing projector lenses, and laser beam printer lenses. As well as various prisms, polygon mirrors, etc., the application market is extremely broad. Another important application field of polycarbonate in optical lenses is as a lens material for children's glasses, sunglasses, safety glasses and adult glasses. In recent years, the average annual growth rate of polycarbonate consumption in the world's optical industry has remained above 20%, showing great market vitality.
8. Disc basic materials
As an audio-visual information storage medium, optical discs are another big market for polycarbonate applications. However, in recent years, due to the impact of the Internet, tablet computers, smart phones and other emerging media, the global optical disc market demand has shrunk sharply. The global copy volume of CD-type optical discs will drop to 17% of 2009, and DVD-type optical discs may drop to 2009. The growth rate of Blu-ray Disc production is also gradually slowing down. In the absence of new technological breakthroughs and the emergence of new consumer markets, the trend of shrinking demand in the optical disc copy market will continue.
9. LED lighting industry
In recent years, facing the global energy crisis, the LED industry has sprung up and is now widely used in lighting, display, backlighting and other industries. The application of LED lighting will gradually phase out incandescent lamps and fluorescent lamps, which is of great significance for achieving energy saving and emission reduction and actively responding to global climate change. In 2013, the global LED lighting market was about 27 billion U.S. dollars, and the Chinese market in 2013 was also about 48 billion yuan. Because of its light weight, easy processing, high toughness, flame-retardant and heat-resistant properties, polycarbonate has become the primary choice for replacing glass materials in LED lighting.
In general, the global electronic products, especially consumer electronics market, account for about 20% of the polycarbonate terminal market share; the sheet and film market, which is mainly used in the construction industry, accounts for 18% of the polycarbonate terminal market share. %; The optical media market accounts for 18%; the electrical appliances and automotive non-window markets each account for 12%. The application situation in each region is different: for example, in 2012, in the United States, the automotive industry accounted for about 1/4 of the demand for polycarbonate, which is the largest application market, followed by the construction industry. In Western Europe, the construction industry accounts for about a quarter of polycarbonate resin demand, followed by the automotive industry. The situation in China is different. Although China's automobile industry consumed more polycarbonate than the United States and Europe in 2012, it only accounted for 10% of China's total consumption, which is equivalent to home appliances, household products, and optical disc applications. In my country, the largest consumer of polycarbonate is the electronics and electrical industries, accounting for about 1/3 of the total demand.
