How does plastic respond to new appeal of household appliances
How does plastic respond to new appeal of household appliances
Engineering plastics are widely used in all walks of life because of its rigidity, small creep, high mechanical strength, good heat resistance and good electrical insulation. The home appliance industry is an important area of engineering plastic application. How to realize the concept of home appliance design by means of engineering plastics? What are the requirements for the quality and technology of engineering plastics in the home appliance industry? With these questions, we have interviewed two famous household appliance brands, midea and haier, to understand the new trend of plastics in the appliance industry.
Material certification - lead engineering plastics development new benchmark
According to deng haibin, a plastics research engineer at midea group procurement center, the total annual plastic consumption of beauty is about 350,000 tons, of which about 85% to 90%(ABS, PP, PS) and engineering plastics account for 10%. Five major engineering plastics are involved, including PPS, ASA, PCTG and engineering alloy materials. The main cooperating engineering material suppliers include basf, Sabic, benzene collar, EMS, etc.
The plastic supplier of midea is more diversified. When choosing a supplier, it mainly considers the five aspects of technology, cost, service, quality and delivery. When it comes to the differences between domestic and foreign material suppliers, deng haibin points out that the technology and service of foreign suppliers are better and the material performance is stable, but the cost is higher and the delivery time is longer. Domestic engineering materials suppliers are more assured in terms of cost and delivery, and the current technology and services and quality are also being improved. Foreign material supplier another advantage is the special certification is complete, they will according to the requirements of different products market used to certification materials, such as water treatment equipment application need to NSF certification, UL (hum inside some exceptional heat resistance, weather resistance, resistance, flame retardant, such as certification, certification with the food hygiene related regions such as the FDA, EU, LFGB and so on, so I have certification on the export products use selective advantage. With the intensification of market competition, the special material certification also slowly spread in domestic material supplier, but the domestic material supplier of special certification need continuous efforts and improvement, in order to adapt to the request of the export market as soon as possible.
"In the United States, new materials and new applications will be studied through the material research department, which will be required by product research and development, and then look for suitable suppliers of materials. Supplier need to according to the material performance and material certification needs to choose suitable material, at the same time tend to put forward suitable material processing technology and die design, recommend the corresponding mold manufacturers, such as injection molding plant material application form a complete set of solutions."
The competition in the home appliance industry is becoming increasingly fierce, and it is the development trend of engineering plastics to make plastic steel, copper, functional and appearance. "Although the cost of steel is relatively low, plastic can be moulded in a single injection because of its simple processing technology. Many processing and post-processing processes have been reduced and the advantages of plastic steel are still available. The application of copper in plastic is also mature, such as the copper joint of many pipes before, and now can be used to replace copper products with modified nylon. The functional realization of home appliances, such as coffee machine, raw juice machine, etc., which are wear-resistant, heat-resistant and food contact, has been solved by applying special engineering materials. The appearance of home appliance to ascend, is also an important factor of brand marketing, appearance of ascension can attract the attention of consumers, all kinds of plastic modification made by filling metal appearance and the appearance of the imitation of spraying, achieves the better visual effect, and realize the product lightweight, reduces the pollution of the environment." In addition, "the certification of materials and the technical service capacity of material suppliers are also the application requirements of engineering materials. Only with special certification requirements in line with the industry's material can be more widely used, provide a better use of experience for consumers, at the same time we also hope to material suppliers to provide more good solutions for home appliances industry choice, make more and more new materials can be applied to our electrical appliances product, can make more good the Chinese electrical appliances in the world."
Free spraying, thin-walled, modular - plastic will welcome new opportunities
Haier group, another well-known brand in the home appliance industry, has its own material research and development agency, haier new materials research and development co., LTD., which independently develops new materials.
Tan Weihong haier new material r&d co., LTD. General manager said, "haier group each year about 400000 tons of plastic, including general plastics for 350000 tons, modified plastics (engineering plastics) accounted for 50000 tons. Plastics, elastomers, such as in the application of haier electrical appliances ratio gradually increases, the safety of the engineering plastics commonly used in home appliance module, electrical module, turn the module, the motor coil skeleton and slippery course module, etc. The commonly used engineering plastics on home appliances include modified nylon series, modified PET series, modified POM series, modified PC/ABS series, and modified PPO, but not very large in household appliances. The vast majority of these materials are provided by the research and development of haier's new materials. Special engineering plastics are used less on home appliances.
The choice of materials is related to the appearance of the electrical home appliances products, quality and safety, to better material selection and optimization scheme, haier group in the early part of the appliance design, make haier new material into to the development of home appliance such as refrigerator, air conditioner and washing machine design, to help developers choose better material optimization solution. "Haier new material research and development over the past two years to launch a global low VOC free - spraying and can replace electroplating series products, materials, reduce the pollution to the environment, accord with the current environmental protection of the social mainstream. The free spraying and the series of materials that can be substituted for electroplating were introduced at the Asian rubber and plastic exhibition (CHINAPLAS) in guangzhou in 2015. Many worldwide customers, such as huawei and samsung, are interested in the modified materials we produce.
Another important reference factor for home appliances - the safety of the user, thus has strict requirements on the flame retardancy and electrical performance of the materials. Haier group has almost stringent requirements on the safety of home appliances, haier new material flame retardant series according to the needs of users are updated iterations, such as flame retardant PPO series and series products of flame retardant PC/ABS, enhanced the security of home appliance flame retardant grade, satisfy the user's need for home appliances use safety. Both of the materials can reach 850 degrees of hot wire and go out in 30 seconds, passing the 125 degree ball pressure and 250V leakage test. With the improvement of new material performance, "thin-walled" is to reduce the wall thickness of the product, thus reducing the production cost of enterprises and improving the performance of materials, thus becoming an industry trend. And the modification of the material is possible to the thin wall of the products.
Recently, haier group has launched a modular strategy, and new materials for home appliances will also have more opportunities and challenges. Haier modularization on the material supplier selection on the main evaluation criterion for whether can provide a complete set of lead materials solutions, provide technical support, inspection module of comprehensive competitiveness. This guide material suppliers to improve their own research and development strength and ability to innovate, simple spell price, there is no technical background and parallel interactive ability of suppliers will be eliminated, to guide the industry to form a benign development momentum.
