Current Status And Application Status Of PC Diffuser Technology At Home And Abroad
Aug 10, 2021
With the rapid development of the LED industry in the past ten years, LED lighting has been fully popularized and accepted by people. The diffuser as a key material for LED lighting has also continued to develop and progress. As a high-quality diffuser material, the PC diffuser has also been used in technology and application. Continuous improvement and improvement.
The technological level of PC diffuser board: 1. Modified by blending light diffusion resin and PC resin, the two materials with different refractive indexes are uniformly dispersed and molded, and the difference in refractive index is used to achieve light diffusion; at the same time, the thermoforming technology is used to form irregularities on the surface of the PC sheet during the molding process. The geometric surface, using the surface to achieve diffusion. 2. While realizing light diffusion, in order to ensure light transmittance, the selected diffusion materials and PC materials are both optical-grade materials. The surface molding of the product uses a designed optical diffusion surface instead of a pure frosted glass surface.
At present, there are few domestic and foreign PC diffusion board manufacturers, mainly foreign companies. The overall production technology level is as follows:
Table 1 The overall production technology level at home and abroad
In view of the excellent stability and safety of PC diffuser, it is widely used in commercial lighting, public safety lighting, transportation and facilities in developed countries such as Europe, America and Japan; the proportion of use in China and other developing countries is extremely low. . There are fewer applications in general lighting fields such as home and office. On the one hand, the cost of PC diffuser is higher, and on the other hand, there are few manufacturers of PC diffuser. There is demand in the market, but the demand is lowered due to the lack of supply.
2. The difference between domestic PC diffusion plate technology and application and foreign countries
The technological development of PC diffuser board originated from raw material manufacturers in developed countries such as Europe, America and Japan. It was originally developed for the purpose of supporting LED backlight display. With the development of LED lighting, the application of PC diffuser board in the field of lighting has also come as the times require.
At present, the technical level and application fields of PC diffuser products at home and abroad are as follows:
Table 2 Technical level and application fields of PC diffuser products at home and abroad
PC diffusers are currently mostly used in high-quality LED lighting products, and most of these products are mainly exported. Several major raw material manufacturers mainly use functional PC diffusers for special requirements markets; Korean and Chinese companies use LED lighting Domain-based.
The application situation in domestic and foreign markets is also very different. Foreign countries have clear safety regulations in the field of transportation facilities and public lighting. PC diffusers are widely used, and there are some life-span requirements in the field of home and office lighting. PC diffusers also have better usage; domestically, there is no clear requirement in the field of transportation facilities and public lighting. PC diffuser is used in some general areas such as home and office, and PC diffuser is rarely used.
Third, the current market bottleneck of PC diffuser
After nearly ten years of development, PC diffuser has a place in high-end applications, but it has not been widely used in general fields such as home and office. There are three factors that affect the widespread use of PC diffusers:
1. As the most stable optical resin with comprehensive performance, PC has a very wide range of applications and market demand. The production technology of PC raw materials is in the hands of international oligarchs. The price of PC raw materials is 2-4 times that of general-purpose plastics. The high cost affects the market. Promotion. Fortunately, domestic PC raw materials have gradually started.
2. LED lamps have only been in development for more than ten years. In addition to the requirements and standards in the field of transportation facilities and public safety, LED products have not standardized and popularized the concepts of service life and safety, and there is no high standard. PC diffusers that are standard as high-quality light sources are also promoted difficulty.
3. As an optical-grade resin, PC has high requirements for processing technology. Generally, plate manufacturers do not have technology accumulation and reserves, and do not have production capacity. The market supply of PC diffusers also has certain bottlenecks.
Fourth, the value of PC diffuser to the LED lighting industry
The product concept of PC light diffuser
In the general environment where LED lighting is becoming more and more popular, PC light diffusers, as a companion of high-quality light sources, help to achieve the quality assurance of LED lighting with high luminous efficiency, safety and flame retardancy, environmental protection and weather resistance. Therefore, the PC light diffuser can help LED lighting products achieve long life, and escort the safety of LED lighting products to meet people's needs for a better life. The temperature resistance range of long-life polycarbonate is minus 60 degrees Celsius to minus 120 degrees Celsius, and the low-pressure heat distortion temperature reaches about minus 135 degrees Celsius. Such a high temperature range makes the PC light diffusion plate made of polycarbonate, the main raw material, effective The stability is greatly increased, and it is not affected by moisture, high and low temperatures. The modification of polycarbonate by adding anti-UV additives through the process can also increase the weather resistance of the PC light diffuser. Compared with other PMMA and PS diffusers, it is modified The PC light diffuser can maintain stable chromatic aberration during 5-10 years of use without aging and deterioration. Used on the lamp housing, it can help LED lighting products achieve long life (Figure 1 is the QUV anti-aging test).
High security
Polycarbonate has stable performance. Due to its molecular structure and chemical bonds, its impact resistance is also very excellent. The impact resistance of PC light diffusers made of polycarbonate is 250 times that of glass and 50 times that of PMMA/PS.
Polycarbonate has a high oxygen index and is itself a B1 engineering material. The PC light diffuser produced can reach the V2 fire rating, and has a non-combustible function. Its performance is better than those PMMA/PS diffusers that support combustion; further through the raw materials The polycarbonate is modified by adding imported composite flame retardants to achieve the V0 flame retardant characteristics of the diffuser with a thickness of 0.8mm-2.0mm, breaking through the traditional bottleneck of only raw material manufacturers in the resin manufacturing process to achieve this characteristic. It greatly improves the application range of PC light diffusers, helps LED lighting products achieve higher safety, meets the needs of more and more customers, and escorts the LED security lighting industry
5. The latest technological breakthrough and innovation of PC diffuser
With the development of the LED lighting industry, the technology of the PC diffuser plate is constantly innovating. In recent years, new breakthroughs have been made: the realization of the diffusion function through the surface microstructure, supplemented by the diffusion particles, instead of the traditional diffusion The technology of particles to achieve light diffusion not only meets the high luminous efficiency of LED lighting fixtures, but also provides anti-glare functions to LED lighting fixtures. When the LED lamps are lighting up, they will emit glare, which affects people's comfort and is easy to cause fatigue. PC light diffusers can eliminate glare and protect people's health by adjusting the surface microstructure.
Sixth, the development trend of PC diffuser technology and application in the future
With the rapid development of the LED lighting industry, LED lighting products have become increasingly mature and stable, and product requirements have gradually changed from the pursuit of high luminous efficiency and low cost to the pursuit of light quality and light health. As a partner of high-quality long-life LED light sources, PC proliferation The future development of the board is to cooperate with the LED light source to quickly realize the improvement of light quality and light health.
Light quality is the pursuit of light comfort while lighting LED lamps, reducing or even eliminating glare from lamps and improving quality]; Light health is pursuing LED lighting to achieve lighting while controlling the intensity of blue and ultraviolet radiation, providing additional functions , Reduce light pollution and give the lamps the function of improving the environment, protect people's health, and meet people's needs for a better life.
7. How to improve light quality and light health through PC diffuser
The concept of light quality and light health has gradually taken root in the hearts of the people. At present, the lighting industry is developing in the direction of improving the comfort and protection of light to improve light quality and light health.
Comfort
At present, the main factors that affect people's comfort are glare and LED stroboscopic light, which can easily cause people's fatigue and visual discomfort. There are three solutions to improve lighting comfort:
1. By controlling the light output angle of the light source, the traditional light output angle is 360°, and the glare is very strong. At present, the light output angle of most lamps on the market is reduced to 120° or even lower to reduce the glare.
2. By controlling the optical transmission angle of the light guide material/lampshade, changing the light transmission direction through the internal structure of the light guide plate, and changing the light transmission angle through the surface structure of the lampshade, thereby reducing or even eliminating glare.
3. Through the anti-glare lampshade/panel, the light can be evened and the light spot distribution can be controlled at the same time, so as to reduce the glare. LED stroboscopicity is mainly solved from the LED light source.
Protective
The main effects of lamps on people's health are blue light hazards and ultraviolet hazards. The high-energy blue light of 400nm-450nm with LED luminous body as the light source can not only cause discomfort to the human body for a long time, but also damage the retina of the human eye. The ultraviolet rays of LED light sources can be ignored. Traditional light sources such as fluorescent lamps and energy-saving lamps have obvious ultraviolet radiation. Ultraviolet rays below 380nm can damage human skin health and require protection.
The blue light hazard is mainly solved through three aspects: light source, lampshade, and auxiliary:
1. The light source is solved by adding blue light absorbing material in the LED lamp beads;
2. Auxiliary solution, by installing a lens with blue light absorption function outside the lamp bead;
3. The lampshade is solved. By adding absorption additives to the lampshade, mask and other diffusion materials, the blue light radiation intensity can be reduced by 15%-30%.
Ultraviolet light hazards mainly exist in traditional light sources such as fluorescent lamps and energy-saving lamps. At present, it is widely used to add ultraviolet absorption additives to diffusion materials such as lampshades, masks, etc., which can reduce the intensity of ultraviolet light irradiation by 90-95% and protect human health.
