Toray Corporation (hereinafter referred to as "Toray") has announced that it has developed a transparent aramid film (PI) that has the same hardness as glass and can withstand a 1mm bending radius.
In recent years, foldable and curved displays are constantly developing. To replace the traditional glass cover plate of the display, a film with high hardness and bending resistance is required. Aramid is a super engineering plastic with excellent hardness and heat resistance. Toray is the only company in the world to commercialize aramid. Based on this technology, and using Toray's unique polymer design and film-making technology, the company has developed a highly rigid, high heat resistance, colorless and transparent aramid film.
Toray's surface processing of this transparent film by using special technology can achieve ultra-high hardness of 9H and withstand more than one million bendings with a bending radius of 1mm. Using this product on the display surface cover, while obtaining the same scratch resistance as glass, you can expect thinner and more designed flexible displays.
Toray's unique polymer design technology makes this film both rigid and heat resistant. While developing a colorless and transparent aramid polymer, by deepening the solution film forming technology, the properties of aramid were successfully brought to the limit, achieving the world's highest Young's modulus value of 10GPa and 5ppm / K The following coefficients of thermal expansion are high rigidity and high heat resistance.
At the same time, the company developed a special coating for the aramid film, which is an organic-inorganic mixed layer composed of high-hardness nanoparticles and a polymer dispersant. By finely filling and homogeneously arranging nanoparticles on an aramid film with high rigidity and difficult deformation, the film is extremely hardened, and by controlling the affinity between the aramid film and the dispersant, the film Takes into consideration bending resistance.
The film can be applied to a wide range of fields such as flexible display devices, transparent circuit boards, and transparent solar cells. At present, the technology has passed the pilot test, and the possibility of mass production will be further discussed in the future, but it is expected that it will take several years before the final application.