The 7th Edition CPRJ Plastics in 3C Electronics/Home Appliance Conference and Showcase staged two Technical Exchange Meetings today (Sept 10).

At the meetings, experts from Hefei Meiling Co., Ltd. and Lenovo (Shenzhen) Electronic Co., Ltd. presented and shared on how to make use of high-performance materials for enhancing functions and user experience in refrigerators and laptops.

The Technical Exchange Meetings staged at the CPRJ Plastics in 3C Electronics/Home Appliance Conference.

High-performance materials for refrigerator upgrade

Meiling is a Chinese home appliance manufacturer specialized in refrigeration products. Half of the refrigerators produced are exported to Europe, Americas, Asia and Africa.

In his sharing, Cai Xunru, Senior Material Engineer at Changhong Meiling Co., Ltd., said that the company is looking for upgraded high-performance materials to optimize the aesthetic, customer experience and production cost-effectiveness of its refrigerators.

Refrigerator liner, for example, is usually manufactured using ABS or HRPS in vacuum forming. If PP is to replace these two materials during the process, challenges of warping, and cracking of PP need to be fixed, he explained.

Cai Xunru, Senior Material Engineer at Changhong Meiling Co., Ltd.

Besides, Meiling is searching for suitable materials such as spray-free materials, nature-inspired materials, fluorescent materials, and color-changing materials to further improve the aesthetic appearance of its refrigerators. 

Cai Xunru elaborated that fluorescent materials can make refrigerator panel more eye-catching and color-changing materials allow variations on panel due to temperature or light changes. “We hope that there will be less limitation on the molds and can avoid reopening the molds when using these materials,” he remarked. 

Regarding the functions of refrigerator, Meiling is working to utilize the gas separation membrane technology for separation of oxygen and carbon dioxide, so that the refrigerator could perform optimized freshness maintenance function.

Lightweight and antibacterial plastics for laptop design 

Talking about the applications and trends of engineering plastics in electronic equipment, Gence Shi, Director of Lenovo Research at Lenovo (Shenzhen) Electronics Co., Ltd., brought up some key aspects such as lightweight, metallization of surface, strength enhancement, and antibacterial, antiviral and recyclable materials.

Gence Shi, Director of Lenovo Research at Lenovo (Shenzhen) Electronics Co., Ltd.

He said that Lenovo is continuously reducing the weight of mobile electronic equipment made from polycarbonate. Meanwhile, the company is also considering the use of carbon fiber, PPS or other high performance materials that are strong and light.

Moreover, antibacterial and antiviral materials have been gaining attention in the 3C electronics and home appliances industries since the COVID-19 pandemic. Lenovo thus keeps developing antibacterial and antiviral polymers for parts and coatings of laptops, tablets and mobile phones.

“Testing of the effectiveness of the antibacterial and antiviral materials has been conducting in our laboratory for over a year. The industry testing standard and regulations are by far not very comprehensive and the industry is working on them,” Gence Shi pointed out. “That is anticipated to be the focus of application sectors in the future.”

He also noted that the requirements for antibacterial materials are higher than those for antiviral materials, and Lenovo has already achieved mass production of antibacterial materials. The company laboratory has also applied anti-viral powder and liquid to the surface of its laptops with spray-based process.

In addition, Gence Shi added that the use of non-petroleum based and recyclable materials has been gaining wider application in electronic equipment. “The application of recyclable materials in consumer electronics will be expanding,” he concluded.

The 7th Edition CPRJ Plastics in 3C Electronics/Home Appliance Conference and Showcase staged two Technical Exchange Meetings today (Sept 10).

At the meetings, experts from Hefei Meiling Co., Ltd. and Lenovo (Shenzhen) Electronic Co., Ltd. presented and shared on how to make use of high-performance materials for enhancing functions and user experience in refrigerators and laptops.

The Technical Exchange Meetings staged at the CPRJ Plastics in 3C Electronics/Home Appliance Conference.

High-performance materials for refrigerator upgrade

Meiling is a Chinese home appliance manufacturer specialized in refrigeration products. Half of the refrigerators produced are exported to Europe, Americas, Asia and Africa.

In his sharing, Cai Xunru, Senior Material Engineer at Changhong Meiling Co., Ltd., said that the company is looking for upgraded high-performance materials to optimize the aesthetic, customer experience and production cost-effectiveness of its refrigerators.

Refrigerator liner, for example, is usually manufactured using ABS or HRPS in vacuum forming. If PP is to replace these two materials during the process, challenges of warping, and cracking of PP need to be fixed, he explained.

Cai Xunru, Senior Material Engineer at Changhong Meiling Co., Ltd.

Besides, Meiling is searching for suitable materials such as spray-free materials, nature-inspired materials, fluorescent materials, and color-changing materials to further improve the aesthetic appearance of its refrigerators. 

Cai Xunru elaborated that fluorescent materials can make refrigerator panel more eye-catching and color-changing materials allow variations on panel due to temperature or light changes. “We hope that there will be less limitation on the molds and can avoid reopening the molds when using these materials,” he remarked. 

Regarding the functions of refrigerator, Meiling is working to utilize the gas separation membrane technology for separation of oxygen and carbon dioxide, so that the refrigerator could perform optimized freshness maintenance function.

Lightweight and antibacterial plastics for laptop design 

Talking about the applications and trends of engineering plastics in electronic equipment, Gence Shi, Director of Lenovo Research at Lenovo (Shenzhen) Electronics Co., Ltd., brought up some key aspects such as lightweight, metallization of surface, strength enhancement, and antibacterial, antiviral and recyclable materials.

Gence Shi, Director of Lenovo Research at Lenovo (Shenzhen) Electronics Co., Ltd.

He said that Lenovo is continuously reducing the weight of mobile electronic equipment made from polycarbonate. Meanwhile, the company is also considering the use of carbon fiber, PPS or other high performance materials that are strong and light.

Moreover, antibacterial and antiviral materials have been gaining attention in the 3C electronics and home appliances industries since the COVID-19 pandemic. Lenovo thus keeps developing antibacterial and antiviral polymers for parts and coatings of laptops, tablets and mobile phones.

“Testing of the effectiveness of the antibacterial and antiviral materials has been conducting in our laboratory for over a year. The industry testing standard and regulations are by far not very comprehensive and the industry is working on them,” Gence Shi pointed out. “That is anticipated to be the focus of application sectors in the future.”

He also noted that the requirements for antibacterial materials are higher than those for antiviral materials, and Lenovo has already achieved mass production of antibacterial materials. The company laboratory has also applied anti-viral powder and liquid to the surface of its laptops with spray-based process.

In addition, Gence Shi added that the use of non-petroleum based and recyclable materials has been gaining wider application in electronic equipment. “The application of recyclable materials in consumer electronics will be expanding,” he concluded.