How does the hottest plastic respond to the new de

How to deal with the new demands of household electrical appliances

engineering plastics are widely used in all walks of life because of their high rigidity, low creep, high mechanical strength, good heat resistance, good electrical insulation and other properties. Household appliance industry is an important field of engineering plastics application. How can household appliance design realize the concept landing with the help of engineering plastics? What are the needs of the household appliance industry for the quality and technology of engineering plastics? With these questions, I recently interviewed two famous household appliance brands Midea and Haier to understand the new trend of plastic application in the household appliance industry

material certification - leading the development of new benchmarks for engineering plastics

can be used as welding materials, chemical catalysts, conductive pastes, etc.

according to Deng Haibin, plastic research engineer of Midea Group Procurement Center, Midea's total annual consumption of plastic is about 350000 tons, of which general-purpose plastics account for 85% - 90% (ABS, PP, PS), and engineering plastics account for about 10%. Five engineering plastics are involved. In addition, PPS, ASA, pctg and engineering alloy materials are also used. At present, the main engineering material suppliers we cooperate with are BASF, SABIC, benzene ring, EMS, etc

Midea's plastic suppliers are relatively diversified. When selecting suppliers, we added desolite supercoatings production line in our Taiwan factory, mainly considering technology, cost, service, quality and delivery time. When talking about the differences between domestic and foreign material suppliers, Deng Haibin pointed out that the technology and service of foreign suppliers are better, and the material performance is relatively stable, but the cost is higher and the delivery time is longer. Domestic engineering material suppliers are relatively guaranteed in terms of cost and delivery time of metal material fixtures and non-metal material fixtures according to experimental materials. The current technology, service and quality are also constantly developing and improving. Another advantage of foreign material suppliers is that the special certification of materials is relatively complete. They will certify materials according to the needs of different product market applications, such as NSF certification required for water treatment equipment applications, some special heat-resistant, weather resistant, chemical resistant, flame retardant and other certifications in UL yellow card, and regional certifications related to food hygiene, such as FDA, EU, lfgb, etc., so they have the advantage of certification selection in the use of export products. With the fierce market competition, special material certification is also gradually popularized among domestic material suppliers, but the special material certification of domestic material suppliers still needs continuous efforts and improvements in order to meet the requirements of the export market as soon as possible

"in Midea, generally, the research of new materials and new applications will put forward needs through the material research department, product research and development, and then find suitable material suppliers. Suppliers need to select appropriate materials according to the requirements of material performance and material certification. At the same time, they will generally put forward appropriate material processing technology and mold design schemes, and recommend the corresponding mold manufacturers, injection molding plants and other material application supporting schemes."

the competition in the household appliance industry is becoming increasingly fierce. The development trend of engineering plastics is to replace steel with plastic, copper with plastic, and improve its functionality and appearance. "Although the cost of steel is relatively low, the processing technology of plastic is simple because of loosening the key test cylinder. It can be molded by one-time injection molding, reducing many processing and post-treatment processes. The application of plastic instead of steel still has advantages. The application of plastic instead of copper has also been relatively mature, such as the copper joints of many pipes before, now it is almost possible to use modified nylon to replace copper products. The functional realization of household appliances, such as coffee machine, juice machine and other durable Grinding, heat-resistant and food contact parts have also been solved by the application of special engineering materials. The appearance improvement of household appliances is also an important factor in brand marketing. The appearance improvement can better attract the attention of consumers. All kinds of plastics are made into metal like appearance and spray like appearance through filling modification, which not only achieves better visual effect, but also realizes the lightweight of products and reduces environmental pollution. " besides, "The certification of materials and the technical service ability of material suppliers are also the application requirements of engineering materials. Only materials that meet the special certification needs of the industry can be widely used to provide consumers with a better use experience. At the same time, we also hope that material suppliers can provide more good material application solutions for the home appliance industry to choose, so that more and more new materials can be applied to our home appliance products, It can make more good Chinese household appliances go to the world. "

spray free, thin-walled, modular - plastics will usher in new opportunities

unlike purchasing new materials from outside, Haier Group, another well-known brand in the household appliance industry, has its own material research and Development Organization - Haier New Materials Research and Development Co., Ltd., which independently develops new materials

according to tan Weihong, general manager of Haier New Materials Research and Development Co., Ltd, "Haier group needs about 400000 tons of plastics every year, of which 350000 tons are general-purpose plastics, and modified plastics (including engineering plastics) Accounting for 50000 tons. The application proportion of plastics and elastomers in Haier household appliances is gradually increasing. Engineering plastics are generally used in the safety module, electrical module, rotation module, motor coil framework, slide rail and other modules of household appliances. The engineering plastics commonly used in household appliances include modified nylon series, modified PET series, modified POM series, modified pc/abs series, and modified PPO, but the consumption in household appliances is not very large. Most of these materials are provided by Haier New Materials Research and development. " Special engineering plastics are rarely used in household appliances

the selection of materials is related to the appearance, quality and safety of household appliances. In order to better optimize the material selection scheme, Haier Group has involved Haier New Materials in the development and design of household appliances such as refrigerators, air conditioners and washing machines in the early stage of household appliance design, so as to help development engineers choose better material optimization schemes. "Haier New materials has developed and launched global low VOC products, spray free and electroplating replaceable series of materials in the past two years to reduce environmental pollution, which is in line with the current social mainstream of environmental protection. Spray free and electroplating replaceable series of materials were exhibited at Chinaplas in Guangzhou in 2015 The promotion on the Internet has aroused considerable repercussions both inside and outside the industry. Many worldwide customers, such as Huawei and Samsung, are also interested in the modified materials we produce. "

another important reference factor of household appliances - the safety of users, so there are strict requirements on the flame retardancy and electrical properties of materials. Haier Group has almost stringent requirements for the safety of household appliances. Haier's new flame-retardant materials are constantly updated and iterated according to the needs of users, such as the introduction of flame-retardant PPO series and flame-retardant pc/abs series products, which improve the safety and flame-retardant grade of household appliances and meet the users' needs for the safety of household appliances. Both materials can reach 850 degrees of glow wire, extinguish in 30 seconds, and pass the 125 degrees of ball pressure and 250V leakage trace test. With the improvement of the performance of new materials, "thin-walled" means to reduce the wall thickness of products, so as to reduce the production cost of enterprises and improve the performance of materials, which has become the development trend of the industry. The modification of materials makes it possible to thin-walled products

recently, Haier Group has launched a modular strategy, and new materials for household appliances will also usher in more opportunities and challenges. Haier modularization's main evaluation criteria for the selection of material suppliers are whether it can provide a complete set of leading material solutions, provide corresponding technical support, and examine the comprehensive competitiveness of module suppliers. This will guide material suppliers to constantly improve their basic R & D strength and innovation ability, and suppliers who simply fight for price, have no technical background and parallel interaction ability will be eliminated, thus guiding the industry to form a benign development trend

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