IMRD uses subtraction logic to solve industry dilemma?

Fiber materials , as structural materials for smart terminal products , have many advantages. Currently, the proportion of mobile phone back covers on sale using fiber materials is as high as 15% , such as Huawei mate7 0, flagship phones from Huawei , Honor , Xiaomi and other companies .

As a high-quality structural material, fiber has low density, good toughness, is not easy to deform, and does not affect the signal. It can make the product meet the characteristics of light, thin and high strength, and become an ideal material for the back cover of electronic products such as mobile phones and tablets, with broad future application prospects.

At present, the mainstream fiber decoration solutions for each terminal are mainly as follows , including fiber 3D molding + leather integration, fiber + leather integrated molding, fiber 3D molding + spray coating and rubbing and other processes.

Due to the long process of spraying and printing of fiber 3D battery covers and the complex process, the low yield and large-scale delivery are limited by resources and cannot meet product needs. Recently, the fiber 3D molding + PO decorative diaphragm post-plating process (also known as the OMR bonding process in the industry) has become a hot topic of innovation.

However, there are many pain points in the post-OMR fitting decoration solution:

1 Complex process , high idiot index

OMR lamination solution, process flow: fiber semi-cured sheet stacking, 3D hot press forming, PO decorative diaphragm silk-print adhesive (mostly 3M glue is used now, domestically produced alternatives are under development), vacuum bonding machine hot press lamination, pressure holding and other processes.

The current bond yield is low, and the average yield of the coating solution is about 50% , which leads to huge waste of materials and diaphragms. The corresponding product idiot index remains high. The original intention of developing this process is to solve the production capacity and cost problems, but in fact it is just to solve the production capacity problem, and the cost has not been substantially reduced.

2 Single unit has low production capacity and large equipment investment

OMR uses vacuum hot pressing lamination machine for PO decorative diaphragm bonding. The unit price of one-out-four lamination machine is about 25-30W (the prices of different manufacturers are slightly floating), the equipment production capacity is about 60pcs per hour (the pressure holding is 4 minutes per mold, and the first mold produces four products), and the industry average yield is about 50% .

Designed with a daily production capacity of 2W , the investment of a single equipment is nearly 1000W . In the uncertain technical direction of fiber structural parts , various manufacturers have become extremely cautious about large investments.

3. Limited production capacity and difficult delivery

OMR bonding is a medium-low temperature (fitting temperature 80~90°C) bonding. In the past, PET diaphragms have poor ductility at this temperature. The diaphragm base material of OMR bonding is changed to the PO base film ; the direction of fiber decoration technology is unclear, and the investment of various manufacturers is very cautious in the bonding machine, resulting in limited OMR bonding capacity. In actual conditions, all mold factories say that they can do it, but no one has much production capacity .

These pain points have always forced the industry to seek new solutions. During the process of visiting the supply chain, Lianyi discovered a promising new fiber decoration solution - fiber IMRD ( In Mold Release Decoration ) decoration technology technology .

Under the spirit of Chen’s “customer first, ultimate cost”, JAME TECHNOLOGY developed a patented technology for fiber material IMRD decoration in combination with material characteristics, customer needs and hardware conditions .

The process flow of IMRD is as follows:

One layer of low-shrink fiber prepreg + intermediate conventional fiber semi-cured sheet + front PET substrate can be released decorative film stacking and hot pressing mold vacuum-in-one molding.

The key point of IMRD technology is to solve the problem of fiber braiding texture in fiber materials. It is to develop low shrinkage (resin shrinkage rate reduced to 10%) prepregs by modifying epoxy resin and adding special modified fillers, which weakens the display of fiber braiding texture after material molding.

Compared with OMR fitting, the IMRD solution has the following advantages:

1. The IMRD diaphragm substrate is cheap and the diaphragm decoration process is more mature.

The IMRD solution uses PET substrates, and the diaphragm technology of PET substrates is highly mature. The OMR bonding solution uses PO substrates, and the price of PO substrates is three times that of PET substrates (PET base film 20RMB/m2, PO base film 60RMB /m2 ); PET base film diaphragm decoration has accumulated more than ten years of experience, and PO base film decoration has just begun.

2. The IMRD solution eliminates the glue coating on the back of the decorative diaphragm.

The average glue cost and process cost of 3M glue used in the industry are about 2RMB, and do not include the diaphragm loss of the process.

3. IMRD solutions do not require equipment investment.

IMRD adopts an integrated molding scheme, which does not involve vacuum bonding, so there is no need for investment in bonding equipment. The emergence of this process may further shake the enthusiasm of each mold factory for investment in bonding equipment .

4. Improve yield, improve delivery, and reduce costs.

The fiber IMRD decoration process is a minimalist technical solution for fiber decoration proposed by Mr. Ren Ren’s “North Slope Thinking”. It has an extremely short process process, with a yield of about 75%, greatly improving delivery, and a cost of about 30% lower than OMR fitting. Jemet can currently meet the delivery needs of 3W/day production capacity.

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