12 future directions for the modified plastics market:

Thermally conductive plastic

Hottest: LED lamp cup and heat sink

Others: electronic and electrical products, such as chip cooling, etc. (I looked at a "plastic engineer" in 2005 and found out that the thermally conductive plastic I know was first used in electronics)

High temperature resistant plastic

Hottest: engine miniaturization and engine surrounding materials

Others: high heat-resistant parts are required inside the electronic and electrical products

High fluidity plastic

Thin-walled, highly structured products

Two ways: compound modification, synthesis stage modification

Halogen-free and heavy metal flame-retardant plastic

Mainly for environmental directives

Biggest problem: price / performance

High performance of bio-based plastics

Sustainable

Exploiting new applications in automobiles, electronics, etc.

Improve temperature resistance and mechanical properties, improve processing performance

Spray-free plastic

High-gloss, high-metal surface

Major automotive and electronics markets

Low VOC plastic

Focus: Automotive indoor environment

Medical and food related high-safety plastics

Application of new safety additives

Achieve longer shelf life (shelf life)

Resistant to medical related disinfection, radiation, and biological safety

Long fiber reinforced plastic

Focus on automotive applications

Achieve higher strength

High-performance modification of recycled materials

Improve the overall performance of recycled materials

Realize high value utilization of recycled materials

Functional materials such as conductive and magnetic permeability

Replace traditional metal functional materials

Applications include various conductive, electromagnetic shielding, micro-motors, sensors, etc.

Other functional materials include: shape memory, self-healing, special optical properties, etc.

Low density plastic

Modification to achieve better thermal insulation performance

Achieve better comfort and flexibility

Combination of multiple lightweight modification technologies

Some key directions for the future of the modified plastics industry

Laser printable plastic

This mainly refers to laser 3D printing technology based on LDS technology. At present, the author knows that LANXESS, Celanese, SABIC, Bayer, etc. have corresponding products available.

I once saw a sample with 3D laser printing (low friction coefficient material) at the Engel booth at K2010.

The speed at which plastics can replace other materials such as metals is inestimable. In the future, the application of polymers to traditional materials in transmission systems is also a general trend.

I have participated in a DuPont webinar dedicated to the meaning of low friction materials. According to reports, more than 85% of current vehicle energy consumption is used to overcome frictional energy consumption. Really less than 15% of the driving force is passed forward.

Low-friction materials will not only affect the efficiency of products such as gears that drive directly, but also other support structures that have rotational contact.

Flexible electronics and printed electronics

In recent years, the concept of flexible displays and thin-film displays has attracted much attention, and has become a hot topic in various electronic exhibitions. CPRJ had a special application article on flexible electronics in early 2013, and there are also institutions specializing in technical exchanges and discussions in this area.

New foam material

In the second part shared yesterday, new lightweight materials were introduced, but the new technology cases that the author knows basically originate from leading foreign chemical companies, such as BASF, BAYER, 3M, etc., including nano-scale microbubble applications, Excellent comfort foam, shape memory material, high toughness, high strength foam, etc. Domestic modification enterprises should pay special attention to modification research and development in this field.

High dimensional stability material

Plastics will face more application challenges in the field of higher precision in the future. Except for a few materials, most plastics have large dimensional fluctuations during processing, so in the traditional concept, the tolerance of metal materials for plastics is almost a joke.

In the future, plastic products will face more severe challenges than metal tolerances if they want to enter higher-end applications. For example, I once saw a pinion of 1 / 1,000,000g in IPF. In the future, plastics will gain a place in a wider range of applications. The demand for high dimensional stability, including high shape stable materials, will increase.

Bio-based plastic

There are many domestic researches on PLA or biodegradable materials, and many industrialized products have been introduced. However, few manufacturers have developed high-performance bio-based materials, such as bio-based polypropylene, bio-based polyamide, bio-based PBT and other materials that can compare with the performance of traditional general-purpose plastics or engineering plastics. Bio-based plastics should attract widespread attention from domestic companies.

Improved performance of recycled materials

This point was mentioned earlier, but the author has always thought that this is very important, and domestic companies, I have not yet concluded that the corresponding technology has been successfully developed or applied.

In addition to the above 8 points, there are actually some applications that may appear more personalized, such as high-density plastics, anti-counterfeiting plastics, etc., which are also worthy of special attention.

Low temperature resistant plastic

In recent years, the industry has paid considerable attention to high temperature resistant plastics, but the research on low temperature resistant materials is obviously insufficient. At this year's K show, Celanese introduced a low temperature resistant material for skis. In fact, in automotive, electronics and other industries, meeting the requirements of low temperature environments is to a large extent a very critical factor in product durability.