Polycarbonate (English abbreviation PC), also known as PC plastic; It is a high polymer containing carbonate group in the molecular chain. According to the structure of the ester group, it can be divided into aliphatic, aromatic, aliphatic - aromatic and other types. Due to the structural particularity of polycarbonate, it has become the fastest growing general engineering plastic among the five engineering plastics.

Production status of polycarbonate (PC) at home and abroad

China is one of the countries that started PC development and industrial production earlier, Chongqing Changfeng Chemical Plant, Changzhou Synthetic Chemical Plant, Shanghai Shenju Chemical Co., Ltd. has been engaged in PC production and research and development work. After 2005, foreign enterprises (Bayer, Teijin, Mitsubishi) began to invest in the construction of polycarbonate equipment in China, and since 2018, China's polycarbonate production capacity has entered a concentrated outbreak period.

In recent years, China's increasing demand for PCS has stimulated foreign PC manufacturers to invest in domestic factories, and China's PC production capacity will continue to grow rapidly. At present, overseas enterprises and domestic enterprises are expanding their production on a large scale. Multinational companies such as Teijin and SABIC Innovative Plastics are stepping up their pace of expansion in the domestic market and increasing their efforts to invest in new polycarbonate projects in China.

Polycarbonate (PC) market application and consumption

01, electronic, electrical and power tools market applications

Polycarbonate has good electrical insulation properties in a wide temperature and humidity range, and has excellent impact resistance, flame retardant properties and dimensional stability, which is suitable for application in the field of electronic and electrical products.

Flame-retardant modified PC material is the ideal material for low-voltage electrical switch socket and strip shell, has been used by Siemens, Bull and many other enterprises; Smart meters currently use glass fiber reinforced PC and weather resistant PC, its excellent flame retardant performance, temperature and weather resistance to smart meters have played a certain role in ensuring the safety of smart meters, smart meters in the domestic market and export demand for modified PC in the next few years is about 60,000 t/a.

02 Home Appliance Market

PC and PC alloy materials with excellent heat resistance, toughness, surface gloss, impact resistance and flame retardant, widely used in TV, audio, air conditioning, heaters, kitchen appliances and other home appliances.

The TV front frame, base and module rubber frame use enhanced PC, and the back cover uses PC/ABS; PC can replace wood materials, used in high-end audio products for shell, speaker diaphragm, bracket, etc., to meet the requirements of light weight, thin wall, high strength sound.

With the continuous upgrading of air conditioning appearance, low noise and other requirements, more and more PC and its alloy materials are used in the air conditioning deflector, air outlet grille, panel, window and other components.

PC and alloy materials have a high cost performance in the application of heating fan materials, Gree, Midea and other brands have used halogen-free flame retardant PC/ABS alloy as shell materials; In addition, PC is widely used in rice cookers, microwave ovens, soybean milk machines, juice machines and other transparent Windows, shell components, giving these home appliances elegant luster effect.

03 Consumer Electronics market

PC and alloy are used in mobile phone battery back cover, middle frame, front frame and battery frame, etc. The annual demand for PC in the mobile phone industry is about 50,000 t; Compared with aluminum alloy and carbon fiber composite materials, PC used in notebook shell, with easy to form, high toughness, low cost advantages, the annual amount of modified PC used in the notebook market more than 50,000 t;

PC can be used in mobile phone charger, laptop power adapter, charging bank, switch socket, plug bar, UPS continuous power supply system and other parts of the shell and internal insulation.

With the development of Internet, Internet of Things, artificial intelligence and other technologies, the use of PC in the consumer electronics industry will gradually increase.

04 Office market applications

PC in office equipment is mainly used in printers, copiers, fax machines, projectors, shredders, scanners and other shell components, mainly flame-retardant PC/ABS, the annual consumption of 150,000 to 200,000 t.

05. Automobile market

The automotive field is one of the main application markets of PC, mainly used in automotive lighting systems and automotive interior and exterior decoration. PC in the plastic materials used in car lights accounted for 50%(weight ratio), compared with traditional glass materials, PC has lower weight and more flexible design freedom; Using PC instead of traditional glass for Windows will have a weight reduction effect, can improve fuel efficiency, and has huge business opportunities in the car window market; PC is used in interior materials such as instrument panels, column trim panels and portal panels, and exterior trim materials such as grilles, bumpers, spoilers and luggage brackets.

PC film processing is mainly extrusion rolling process, the thinest can be 0.025mm, to meet the electronic and electrical, automotive industry large-scale, thin-walled, lightweight requirements, such as for insulation, signs, displays, keyboards, insulating parts, etc., the domestic PC film annual consumption of 20,000 to 35,000 t.

07 Optical market applications

PC light transmittance is good, can be used for LED lighting shell, lens, lens, CD and so on. PC is the most widely used in light diffusion materials for LED substrates, and has become the preferred material for lighting plastics; Compared with traditional glass materials, the biggest advantage of PC in the lens market is that it is not easy to break, and various shapes of lenses are made by injection molding. PC lens has the advantages of light weight, good safety, thin lens, etc. Phosgene PC is suitable for making lenses.

08 Medical/Packaging applications

Medical grade PC has the characteristics of high transparency, high design freedom, not easy to break, good biocompatibility, can withstand steam heating and large dose radiation disinfection without yellow and physical properties decline, etc. It is widely used in artificial kidney hemodialysis equipment and other medical equipment that needs to be operated under transparent and intuitive conditions and need to be repeatedly disinfected. Such as infusion components, minimally invasive surgical tools, dialyzers, ventilators, masks, diagnostic instruments and medical health-related products.

Polycarbonate application range is very wide, the market demand has a certain space for development, a few years ago, the average annual growth rate of domestic polycarbonate demand is about 6%, consumption of more than 2 million t, self-sufficiency rate is only 80%; Affected by the epidemic, the growth of domestic PC consumption is expected to decrease.

However, with the continuous improvement of domestic downstream manufacturers and users of PC awareness, the domestic demand for polycarbonate is expected to exceed 2.5 million t, when the domestic PC production capacity can meet the domestic market demand, imported products are limited to a few functional products.