LCP (Liquid Crystal Polymer) is a new type of polymer material with excellent properties such as high temperature resistance, high strength mechanical properties, superior electrical properties and processing properties.
As one of the well-known enterprises of LCP materials, Polyplastics Japan started to produce LCP polymers in the early 1990s, with an annual production line of 15,000 tons of LCP polymers. After years of development, Polyplastics has developed the LAPEROS LCP series of products, which not only have orders of magnitude of mechanical strength, high elastic modulus, but also have excellent vibration absorption performance, which can be called the next generation of super engineering plastics. At the 2019 Chinaplas, Polyplastics brought its low-dielectric LCP materials used in 5G communication materials.
Recently, Polyplastics Group (Polyplastics Group) announced the new LAPEROS (R) liquid crystal polymer (abbreviated as LCP) development grades, these grades provide excellent anti-foaming performance for electronic connectors.
These two grades are currently in the preparation stage for commercialization. Compared with the existing materials, they have been proven to have higher anti-foaming performance and show strong potential in improving productivity. It is reported that Polyplastics has conducted experimental research on different types of foaming and is working to further reduce foaming defects.
LCP has strong heat resistance and fluidity, so it can be widely used in SMT (Surface Mount Technology) accessories. Foaming is a common defect of LCP, usually manifested as bumps on the surface of the molded product due to heat. There may be many reasons for blistering, including the LCP decomposition gas involved in the molding process and the separation between the skin layer and the core layer.
Polyplastics understands the importance of using materials that have higher thermal stability and produce almost no gas. LAPEROS (R) LCP provides multiple grades such as ultra-high heat resistance to meet customer needs. In order to provide anti-foaming solutions, the company also carried out nozzle and injection optimization research. Other factors such as molding conditions and mold shape design can also have a significant effect on foaming.
In addition to high fluidity and dimensional accuracy, LCP also has high heat resistance and is widely used in connector applications for devices such as smartphones, which are becoming more and more compact and tend to use SMT accessories.
Benefiting from the accelerated construction of 5G, the LCP market is growing rapidly. Statistics show that the total global demand for LCP reached 54,000 tons in 2016, with a scale of US $ 950 million. It is reported that by 2024, global liquid crystal polymer (LCP) film and composite materials sales will reach 166.9 million US dollars (more than 1.17 billion yuan). The future highlights of LCP mainly come from two aspects of application growth brought by 5G promotion: LCP particles for connectors and LCP films for mobile phone antennas.
In addition, due to the demand for high dimensional accuracy and heat resistance, the application rate of LCP in the automotive, home electronics and office automation industries has also been increasing in recent years.