ITO Coated Polyester Film UK: Properties & Applications

As 21^st Century display & communications technologies continue to evolve at a rapid pace, designers and manufacturers are under constant pressure to deliver ever-more substantial, yet smaller and lighter solutions with high optical transmission, flexibility, impact tolerance and durability. Offering a good balance of properties, the ITO coated polyester film UK based coating specialists Diamond Coatings produce is the perfect answer to meeting these demands.

Polyester Film Properties

Either biaxially oriented (stretched into 2 different directions to reduce elongation and increase both strength & stiffness) or bubble extruded (“blown film”) polyester (PET or polyethylene terephthalate) film is one of the converting industry’s most popular, most commonly used substrates.

There is good reason for this specific thermoplastic polymer’s popularity: offering the perfect balance of properties for myriads of applications, it is equal and, in many cases, superior to other thermoplastics in terms of:

• Chemical resistance to water & organic materials; density & dielectric constant
• Dimensional stability, elongation & insulation breakdown
• Melting point, service temperature range & specific gravity
• Optical clarity, oxygen/gas & odour permeability and tear strength
• Tensile strength, UV resistance & water (vapour) transmission rates

Highly transparent (optically clear), virtually shatter-proof and offering a high strength/weight ratio, polyester film is also an ideal substrate for metallizing, laminating, vacuum coating and sputtering with indium tin oxide.

Polyester Film Applications

Combined with the fact that it can be engineered specifically to meet diverse applications’ precise requirements as well, these properties make PET film suitable for numerous industrial and commercial applications including, among others:

• Tamper Evident, Security & Surface Protection Films
• Insulation, Packaging & Printable Films
• Labelling, Labelling Face-Stocks & Photovoltaic Back-Sheets
• Hard-Coat, Antimicrobial & Aroma-Barrier Films and More

ITO Coated Polyester Film

Diamond Coatings’ ITO (Diamox and Diamox+) coatings are optically clear and highly conductive. Showing no evidence of optical degradation or reductions in sheet resistance and coating adhesion during testing (salt spray & thermal/humidity cycling; MIL STD 48497), they also boast beneficial environmental and chemical resistance.

Applying these coatings to polyester films makes their surfaces conductive while simultaneously maintaining their transparency and enhancing their environmental/chemical resistance and expanding their range of potential applications to include, among many others:

• Membrane Switches, Electroluminescent (El) Lamps & Transparent Heaters;
• Flexible Printed Circuits, Electrophoretic Displays & Smart Windows;
• EMI/RFI Shielding, Medical Sensors & Liquid Crystal Devices;
• Position Sensor/Touch Screen Components, Resistive & Capacitive Touch Screens,

this, of course, makes them the perfect answer to the demands of modern display/communications technology.

ITO Coated Polyester Film UK

Diamond Coatings can supply ITO coated PET films in:

• Standard thicknesses of 175 microns
• Sheet resistances including 18, 50 & 100 ohms/sq.
• Rolls of up to 100 m in length and up to 600 mm in width,
• Standard-sized (600 mm x 457 mm) sheets, and
• Laser cut shapes

For more detailed information and/or advice concerning the most viable options to meet your application’s specific requirements, please give our technical team a call on +44 (0) 8451 360 603 or +44 (0) 121 550 9430 now.