Vicote® Coatings From Victrex Chosen For New Mobile Phone Slide Hinge Design

“We were the first in the industry to incorporate VICOTE coatings into the design of the slide hinge component and successfully move it into mass production,” said Richard Liu, Vice General Manager of Simula Technology R&D Center. “For end users or mobile phone manufacturers, this new innovative design can strengthen the functionality and design flexibility of mobile phones without additional costs.”

The ease of processing of VICOTE Coatings offers flexibility to mobile phone component manufacturers to help them develop innovative designs that meet the market trends, and also to significantly increase the production efficiency and yield rate of mobile phone slide hinges and further reduce overall production costs.”

The popularization of mobile phones globally has raised the consumers’ requirements for the integration of advanced functions, including cameras, audio, TV, PC, and GPS. The stackable design of mobile phones with slide hinges can accommodate multi-functions, large screens, and expandable keyboards, as well as provide lightweight and stylish design.

According to Liu, “Mobile phones with slide hinges have become so popular among consumers that they’ve created a new trend in the marketplace. All the major global mobile phone, PDA UMPC, and handheld device makers have introduced products with slide hinges to take advantage of this market trend and to increase global market share.”

Material selection is key to the success of the current mobile phone design said Alvin Hsu, Manager of Simula Technology’s R&D department. “Tests show that mobile phone slide hinges using VICOTE Coatings maintain their original smoothness after 200,000 cycles and above. The ease of processing serves to raise the production efficiency and yield rate. We previously used PI pressure-sensitive adhesive tape on the slide hinges but it caused production problems and had insufficient lubricity, which reduced production efficiency and yield rate. We plan to use VICOTE Coatings on various lines of slide hinges.”

VICOTE Coatings, based on VICTREX PEEK polymer, offer exceptional scratch and wear resistance, high temperature performance, strength and durability. Eco-friendly VICOTE Coatings were developed to fill the performance gap found in many existing coating technologies today. VICOTE Coatings, powder and liquid dispersions, can be applied using electrostatic or conventional dispersion spray techniques.