Recently, Huawei, OPPO, and vivo have successively released around 1,500 yuan of major shipments of smart phone products. In terms of model design, in addition to similar basic component configurations, these smart phones have adopted various small bangs full screens, equipped with AI dual In addition to the camera, there is a more obvious common point, that is, a large number of 3D composite sheet battery back covers.
In the past two years, about 1,500 yuan of smartphones in the market, the choice of battery back cover materials, either using ordinary injection back cover, or the cost of CNC metal body to explore all the way to make. Only after Apple returned to the dual-glass body last year, some manufacturers also began to test 2.5D glass on this price model.
However, since last year, plastic CNC cases that combine the dual advantages of plastic injection molding fuselage and metal CNC processing technology have begun to be installed on some star models and have achieved good market results. These models have low production costs, but the appearance and user experience are similar to Apple's double glass body, which has been recognized by consumers.
And with the pursuit of 3D hot-bent back cover glass by mainland Chinese brands in the second half of last year, the plastic casing industry has also borrowed from the 3D glass hot-bend process and innovatively developed a 3D composite sheet air high-pressure forming process, similar to 3D hot-bend After the standard composite plastic sheet is heated in a 3D mold cavity, it is then pressure-molded and cooled. Finally, after various surface hardening and decoration processes, it can be made by CNC precision molding to be close in appearance. 3D composite sheet battery back cover product for 3D curved glass products.
According to Li Xing, the current 3D composite battery back cover in the industry generally uses optical grade PC / PMMA composite sheet as the raw material. Among them, PMMA can obtain a surface hardness higher than 6H after hardening, which is used as the outer cover of the battery back cover. On the surface, PC can process the visual effects such as UV texture and PVD coating at a low cost, and is used on the inner surface of the battery back cover. The air high-pressure molding process uses air, a flexible medium, to press the film on the mold in the form of segmented high pressure. The pressure on the outer surface of the PMMA layer of the product is uniform, which can ensure zero damage to the surface of the optical film.
However, the products produced by this high-pressure hot bending process will eventually cause fluctuations in the product's overall size and tolerance due to stress relief. Therefore, in the industry, in order to obtain products with more accurate dimensions and more delicate appearance, CNC The fuselage will refine the final dimensions of the product, so as to obtain the external dimensions and appearance quality, which can be compared with the 3D heat-bent glass, and even the battery back cover product with better dimensional accuracy than the 3D heat-bent glass.
In fact, the processing technology for this kind of 3D composite sheet in the industry is basically a combination of the original iPhone5C colorful plastic back cover technology and the current 3D glass hot bending technology. In order to adapt to the new market situation, manufacturers in mainland China The fusion of process innovations of different materials is coming together.
The technological breakthrough of 3D composite sheet industry has greatly enhanced the competitiveness of mainland Chinese brand mobile phones in the market. With the advent of the 5G network era, technologies such as wireless charging and NFC near field communication have continued to spread on smartphones. In terms of how to design better smartphone products, Chinese mainland brand manufacturers and mainland China's supply chain manufacturers have finally stepped out. Made my own way.
According to the rough statistics of Li Xing in the industry, during the first two years of the process of transferring smartphones from the plastic back cover to the CNC metal body in the mainland of China, the lowest price of products equipped with CNC metal bodies fell to 699 models. Even some niche brand 499 models use CNC metal bodies. At the peak of the industry last year, the proportion of Chinese mainland brand manufacturers using CNC metal bodies on their smartphones exceeded 60% of the industry's total for a time, approaching 70% of the market share.
However, as the Chinese mainland brand manufacturers started to use 2.5D glass battery back cover products on some mid-to-high-end models in the second half of the previous year, the speed of the spread of metal CNC bodies began to be slowly affected; from the second half of last year. Chinese mainland brands equipped with 3D hot-bent glass on high-end models have basically stopped the growth of metal CNCs.
Speaking of the real threat to the metal CNC fuselage, it is actually a breakthrough in 3D composite sheet processing technology since the beginning of this year. When the original manufacturers of plastic casings and the original 3D glass cover manufacturers in the industry began to flood into the 3D composite sheet processing market, the first choice to be suppressed was the Qianyuan machine metal CNC market.
From the current market situation, in the smart phone market around 1500 yuan, 3D composite sheet is rapidly taking up the share of metal CNC fuselage. It is estimated that by the end of this year, at least half of this market will be replaced by 3D composite sheet. That is to say, the shipment volume of 3D composite sheet smartphones will exceed 50 million units this year. In addition to the direct erosion of the 3D composite plate, the metal CNC body also faces the strong squeeze of the 2.5D glass cover of the old rival.
In addition, with the improvement of various technical indicators of 3D composite sheet materials, it is hoped that 3D hot-curved glass for smartphones with a price of about 2,000 yuan will be completely stopped on this price model, even those with a price of more than 2,000 yuan Type, will also become a lower-cost market for 2.5D glass and 3D composite materials.