Dai Nippon Printing (DNP) has developed a plastic cover sheet whose pencil hardness is as high as 9H. The sheet is expected to replace chemically-strengthened cover glasses used for the display parts of smartphones, tablet computers, et cetera.
The cover sheet is made by forming a fingerprint-proof hard coat material on the surface of a plastic sheet substrate and a printable hard coat material on the back of the substrate. DNP has developed its own hard coat materials to realize a high hardness and a high flexibility at the same time, it said.
In addition to the high pencil hardness of 9H, the cover sheet has a high abrasion resistance. Compared with chemically-strengthened cover glasses, the sheet is less likely to be broken when, for example, it is dropped, the company says
Because the cover sheet is made of plastic, it is also highly flexible. The results of a mandrel test with 1.0mm- and 0.5mm-thick products were 140mm and 90mm diameters, respectively. This, it is hoped, will enable companies greater freedom in designing smartphones, tablet computers, etc, and it will be used as a cover sheet of flexible displays built by the likes of Samsung in the future.
DNP is more commonly known in the AV market for its range of own brand projection surfaces along with several OEM deals with major DLP cube manufacturers.