Plastics are indispensable in electrical and electronic applications. Designers specify
plastics because of their performance benefits and efficient use of resources; weight reduction, miniaturisation, electrical and thermal insulation. Plastics are strong, flexible and easily moulded. From simple cables and household appliances to mobile phones and DVD players, significant parts of all modern equipment are made of plastics. Many of today’s new technical developments in the Electrical & Electronic sector capitalize on the latest types of new generation plastics – as a result, devices are becoming smaller and lighter (a fine example of plastics doing more with less resources!).
- Innovations in plastics
Innovations in electrical and electronic applications that improve our quality of lives while preserving and protecting our resources will continue to rely on plastics. An example: LCD (liquid crystal display) flat screens made of liquid crystalline plastics save energy daily by using over 65% less power than ordinary screens with cathode ray tubes! Touch-sensitive panels on telephones are created with films of polycarbonate. Polymers can be made to store electrical charges; called ‘electrets’, they are equivalent to magnets and so can be used in the construction of microphones. They are ideal for use in telephones because they are insensitive to mechanical shocks and electromagnetic radiation. That makes them more reliable and cheaper than equivalent condenser microphones.
- Evolving product design
In small appliances like mobile phones, the use of plastics has increased along with the number of different polymer types being used. Smaller, lighter handsets are made possible thanks to plastics.
- Hidden plastics
Most plastics in electrical and electronic equipment are highly
visible, for instance in telephones, computers and televisions. There are also many plastics components however that are hidden from view, which provide the infrastructure to connect and support our lives. Nearly half of all the plastics used in this sector are used in sheathing for cables and electrical equipment. The unique electrical insulating properties of plastics, combined with their strength, stress resistance, flexibility and durability make them ideal for safe and efficient power supplies.
- Prize-winning plastics
Traditionally, plastics have been used in the electrical and electronic sector because of their unique insulating properties. In 2000, chemists Hideki Shirakawa and Alan MacDiarmid and physicist Alan Heeger won the Nobel Prize in chemistry for creating a polymer that can conduct electricity! The new polymer was as good as some metals at conducting electricity.
- The future for plastics
The batteries to power the communications devices of the future could also be made of plastic. A battery made from conductive polymers would have the significant advantage of offering high power with low weight. Some plastics themselves have optical properties. Polymers have been developed for use in optical switching and as a form of low-cost optical interconnection, just as fibre optics can facilitate the flow of data over long distances between one chip and another. Research is continuing into improving the distances over which data can be successfully carried, so the home of the future could be wired with optical plastic cables.