ITO Coated PET

ITO Coated PET

Indium Tin Oxide (ITO) is commonly used to coat glass to provide an electric conductive coating with a multitude of applications across many industries. You may not be aware that ITO is also applied to plastics such as acrylics, polycarbonates and polyester film.

ITO Coated PET Applications

So, what is ITO coated PET film used for? The answer is actually quite a lot, ranging from jet engines to touchscreens! ITO PET film coatings can withstand extreme heat and harsh environments, so thin film strain gauges are used in gas turbines and engines of jets and even rockets.

Staying vertical, ITO film is also used within the aerospace industry. Because of the optical (clear) and electrical (charged) properties of ITO coated PET, the films are utilised in defrosting an aircraft’s windshield. By applying voltage (which generates heat), the windshields can be defrosted and de-misted immediately – obviously a fairly useful function…

Because ITO film has such a high processing tolerance, further applications in engineering are also possible. These include photovoltaic back-sheets, electrodes for solar cells and capacitors. Tamper evident, antimicrobial packaging films also utilise ITO PET films.

As ITO Coatings are transparent, there are many uses within display applications, from large format retail displays and touch activated ticketing kiosks (when you last bought a train ticket from a kiosk, you were probably enjoying the benefits of ITO film), and of course the touchscreen on your mobile device.

The range of products using ITO films is huge, including touch sensors in cars, smart glass in domestic and commercial environments, the medical and military sector – across many applications.

When you think about it, it is probably nearly impossible to go through a day without using ITO PET technology in some instance.

As well as being transparent, ITO coated PET is also conductive. This allows for use in EMI/RFI shielding (more acronyms here than in an episode of Line of Duty!), electrophoretic displays and electroluminescent lamps and much more.

Where can you get ITO Coated PET?

Diamond Coatings offer ITO coated PET with a standard 175-micron thickness in sheets (600mm x 457mm standard sheet size), rolls (maximum width: 600mm; lengths up to 100m) and laser cut shapes. The standard sheet resistances available are 50 and 100 ohms/sq.

We can also supply ITO coated PET with a protective film applied to both surfaces. You can view our range of ITO films here.

If you would like to discuss your specific requirements, with a member of our team, get in touch with us today.