The paradigm of polyester versatility

In recent years, the polyester family in plastic has gained a foothold in many areas of packaging, advertising, and CD/DVD printing. In contrast to the most frequently used PVC and polypropylene substrates, polyester attracts by the possibility of improvement and the extremely broad suitability for different printing and packaging applications, even the suitability of substrates for conductive inks. People's attention.

The term "ester" comes from the German "Essig-Ather" (literally: vinegar ether), an old name for ethyl acetate. Polyester is a thermoplastic polymer having an ester functional group [-CO-O-] in its main chain. "Thermoplastic" means that these polymers can be molded at higher temperatures and retain their new morphology after cooling. Polyesters will be produced from a variety of polycondensation processes, depending on their chemical composition.

Polyethylene terephthalate (PET, PETB)

The most famous and versatile polyester is PET, which is reacted with monomeric terephthalic acid and ethylene glycol. Semi-crystalline PET molecules (CPET) are straight chains with no lateral branching and are ideal for making folding-resistant, tear-resistant, weather-resistant fabrics such as Trevira (polyethylene terephthalate fiber) or The pile fabric is also an ideal raw material for making a tennis racquet cable. Colorless transparent amorphous PET (APET) will be processed into films with a thickness of 1 micron to the thickness of film material; PET is no longer as curious as a tape material. APET can also be used to make injection-blow or stretch blow-molded soft drink bottles, but is gradually being replaced by polyethylene naphthalate (PEN) in this area.

Due to the high tensile strength, radiopaque heat properties and even the fact that the film sheet is not air- and water-impermeable, it is sufficient to see that APET is an ideal barrier for food packaging that is impervious to air in synthetic membranes. These substrates can then be conveniently printed by flexo printing. The biaxially oriented APET film (boPET, DuPontMylar) was even used as an insulating material for space suits.

In some cases, the upper and lower surfaces of the APET film have different levels of gloss and are particularly suitable for laser and digital ink jet printing such as projection foils and point-of-sale advertising. Their use in UV offset printing (wet offset printing and waterless offset printing) is also increasing. APET or better PET-modified PET (PETG) is the basis for grating substrates. In this case, a very narrow band lens may be formed on the top surface and a high-precision single-sheet offset printing may be performed on the back surface with a waterless offset ink, a UV offset ink or a waterless UV offset ink. The ability to print on smooth PET and lenticular film has captured a considerable market share for users of the KBA Rapida 74UV and 105UV, Rapida 74G, 74 Karat and the KBA Metronic Genius 52UV. In the production of fast-growing bank credit cards and customer loyalty cards governed by Kobol's Metronic presses, APET is used for lamination molding.

Another application area for PETG is shrink labels. Directional PETG can be fully packaged for any given shape of container (such as the neck or can of a wine bottle) and printed on the back with a flexo method (holistic sleeve, wrap label, shrink sleeve) .

Like PVC and polypropylene, APET or a combination of APET and polyethylene can also be used to deep-draw packaging components. Co-extrusion in the order of PETG-APET-PETG can produce GAG-PET and form bubble pockets such as extruded packs for tablets or smaller products. Then use a Chromolux card that is sealed on the front side with a heat-sealing foaming finish and a one-color, one-sided, one-color printing.

The co-extrusion of APET with isophthalic acid modified PET (PETIP) produces sealable membranes that are often bonded to metalized composites, eg for odorless Coffee packaging.

Polybutylene Terephthalate (PBT)

PBT is used for injection molded parts that require good dimensional stability and wear, such as operating parts or electrical components inside the vehicle. PBT's thermal shock resistance makes it a preferred material for coffee machines and steam irons. The fibrous PBT we encountered included the bristles of a toothbrush or the sheath of an optical fiber cable and the cable used for networking on a printing press. Together with CPET, co-extruded can be used to produce an elastic band on the trousers.

Recently PBT has been used as a nanofiller. In the packaging machine 'target=_blank' which is to be made opaque by stretching, the nanoparticles will support this process of forming cavitation. They fill in the formed voids, preventing these voids from causing a loss of material strength. Therefore, many of the UV non-packaging machine 'target=_blank> transparent film contains PBT. In injection-molded parts, PBT nanoparticles act as flow enhancers to the heated thermoplastic, enabling the processing of more complex and flexible parts.

Polycarbonate (PC)

PC is the most expensive polyester produced from toxic phosgene (phosgene) and a glycol. All CDs, DVDs and Blu-ray discs are made from PCs because the polyester is highly transparent and allows error-free data writing via polyester.

The fastest method of decorating these discs is waterless UV offset printing, which can print photo-realistic images. KBA Metronic offers two optimized solutions for this market with its CD-Print machine (6,000 six-color discs per hour) and Premius (7,200 four-color discs per hour). Thermal transfer can indeed print photo-realistic effects, but the process is too slow. On the other hand, the processes of screen printing and inkjet printing lag behind waterless UV offset in both speed and quality.

A well-known use of polycarbonate is a transparent colored casing of a Mac computer processed in the prepress department. Given its perfect transparency, PC has replaced polymethyl methacrylate polymer (Plexiglas PMMA) in many applications.

Printed with conductive polymer

Depending on the intended purpose, various polyesters, ie, flexible PET and PEN, and rigid PA, together with paper, will be another rapid emerging technology-used as a substrate favored by industrial printing with conductive inks. In fact, these "printing inks" are themselves special polyesters, and their partially ionized structures will be ready for the transfer of electrons. Therefore, they are often referred to as "ion exchange polymers" or "organic electrons."

One such very promising copolymer is PEDOT:PSS, which consists of two ion exchange polymers, polyethylene dioxythiophene and polysulfo-styrene. PEDOT:PSS is currently the most suitable choice for sheetfed or narrow web offset because it can be applied reliably and correctly to reproduce extremely fine structures, although its viscosity is lower than paste-like offset inks. The relevant tests have been successfully completed with the addition of PEDOT:PSS to the fountain solution without the use of an ink supply. In this test, the no-image part of the alumina plate of the printing plate suddenly became an image part, and then PEDOT:PSS was completely transferred to the substrate via a special blanket.

The overall goal of printed electronics is to achieve significant cost savings compared to silicon wafers and liquid crystal polymers. For example, so far, the costs of production and application have been blocking the large-scale reference of RFID (radio frequency identification) tags. The fact remains that printing is performed only on the less important RFID components—electrodes and dipoles. More complex electronic components such as transistors, diodes, capacitors, oscillators, integrated circuits, power supplies and light emitting structures (OLEDs: organic light emitting diodes, eg for identification, lettering or displays) or light absorbing structures (OPV: organic photovoltaics) Hit, ie, photocells, need to be built in several layers during printing.

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