Categories: LATEST NEWS

Panasonic Commercializes Polybutylene Terephthalate (PBT) Molding Compounds for Laser Welding

Panasonic Corporation today announced that it will start mass production of polybutylene terephthalate (PBT) molding compounds for laser welding in March, 2016, a move that will contribute to the enhancement of long-term reliability and the flexibility of design of automotive switches and sensors.

Currently, processing methods including sealing with packings and bolts, bonding with adhesive agents, as well as ultrasonic welding, are used for the production of automotive sensors. Instead of such processing methods, laser welding has recently attracted the industry’s attention as its high welding strength can shorten the bonding time and increase productivity. However, plastic molding compounds generally used for laser welding have had low laser transmittance, leading to problems with welding strength and waterproof properties. In order to solve these problems, we have commercialized the PBT molding compounds with the industry’s highest*1 laser transmittance; they excel in their welding strength and waterproof properties. With these compounds, it is possible to use laser welding instead of the current processing methods, and therefore long-term reliability and the flexibility of design can be enhanced when they are applied to automotive components.

These molding compounds have the following features:

1. The industry’s highest*1 laser transmittance, which enables a high welding strength and contributes to the long-term reliability of automotive components.
• Laser transmittance: 72 % (52 % for our conventional products*2)
• No air leak was found under the air pressure (3 atm) in water after a high temperature high humidity storage test*3 or a temperature cycling test*4.

2. Stable quality and performance are ensured with low warpage of molded parts, and this contributes to the enhancement of the flexibility of design of automotive components.
• Warpage: 0.5 mm or less (2.3 mm for our conventional products*2, 1/4 of the conventional products)

3. Excellent hydrolysis resistance enables the water resistance required for small to large automotive components.
• High strength retention rate after a high temperature high humidity storage test*3: 94% (50% for our conventional products*2)

*1: As of February 12, 2016 for PBT molding materials for laser welding (according to Panasonic data)

*2: Our conventional PBT molding compounds

*3: After 1,000 hours under the temperature of 85℃ and humidity of 85%

*4: Temperature range: -40℃-100℃

The molding compounds will be exhibited at the followings shows:

  • The LED Show (March 1-3, 2016, Santa Clara, CA)
  • Highly-Functional Material World 2016 (April 6-8, 2016, Tokyo Big Sight)
Liat

Recent Posts

eInfochips and NXP Collaborate to Enable Battery Energy Storage Customers

 eInfochips, an Arrow Electronics company, today announced its expanded collaboration with NXP® Semiconductors to help…

17 hours ago

DigiKey Adds More Than 611,000 Products and 139 New Suppliers in Q3 2024

 DigiKey, a leading global commerce distributor offering the largest selection of technical components and automation…

20 hours ago

Infineon launches new generation of GaN power discretes with superior efficiency and power density

Infineon Technologies AG (FSE: IFX / OTCQX: IFNNY) today announced the launch of a new…

3 days ago

Power Integrations Launches 1700 V GaN Switcher IC, Setting New Benchmark for Gallium Nitride Technology

1700 V GaN InnoMux-2 IC delivers efficiency of better than 90 percent from a 1000…

3 days ago

NVIDIA Ethernet Networking Accelerates World’s Largest AI Supercomputer, Built by xAI

NVIDIA today announced that xAI’s Colossus supercomputer cluster comprising 100,000 NVIDIA Hopper Tensor Core GPUs…

1 week ago

Siemens strengthens leadership in industrial software and AI with acquisition of Altair Engineering

Acquisition of Altair Engineering Inc., a global leader in computational science and artificial intelligence software,…

1 week ago