Consumer Electronics Products

A number of Japanese companies have developed biodegradable plastics for a range of consumer electronics applications. 

In 2004, Sony and Mitsubishi Plastics developed a flame retardant PLA biodegradable resin claimed to be as strong as ABS. The new material will be used in the front panel of Sony stand-alone DVD players. 

Pioneer Corp of Japan has used PLA as a replacement for polycarbonate to manufacture an optical disc. 

Japanese electronics company Sharp has developed technology to blend PLA biopolymers with conventional plastics recovered from scrapped consumer appliances. The company expects to use such blends in its consumer electronics products by early 2007. 

Fujitsu and Toray Industries have developed the first large-scale notebook computer housing based on polylactic acid biodegradable polymers. The housing is moulded of a specially developed PLA/ polycarbonate blend that provide the required heat and flame resistance. 

---

Manufacture of Printed Wiring Boards. Printed wiring boards, or printed circuit boards, are usually thin flat panels than contain one or multiple layers of thin copper patterns that interconnect the various electronic components (e.g. integrated circuit chips, connectors, resistors) that are attached to the boards. These panels are present in almost every consumer electronic product and automobile sold today. The various photopolymer products used to manufacture the printed wiring boards include film resists, electroless plating resists (23), liquid resists, electrodeposited resists (24), solder masks (25), laser exposed photoresists (26), flexible photoimageable permanent coatings (27) and polyimide interlayer insulator films (28). Another new use of photopolymer chemistry is the selective formation of conductive patterns in polymers (29). 

Development of biodegradable polymers with flame retardant properties that can be used for consumer electronics product housing. 

Japanese electronics company Sharp has developed technology to blend PLA biopolymers with conventional plastics recovered from scrapped consumer appliances. Petroleum-based plastics are generally incompatible with bioplastics, and blends tend to show inferior properties such as impact strength and heat resistance. Sharp claims to have overcome these problems with a microdispersion technology that dramatically improves the properties of the blended material. The company expects to use such blends in its consumer electronics products by early 2007. 

Chapter 9 examines the market opportunities for biodegradable plastics by end use market covering packaging, bags and sacks, disposable serviceware, agriculture and horticulture, medical devices, consumer electronics products, automotive, speciality cards and fibres. 

Deca-BDE is the most common of all the commercial BDE flame retardants. The commercial Deca is generally 95% or more of the BDE-209 congener. It is primarily used as a flame retardant in the hard, dense plastics of consumer electronics products and in the latex back coating of flame retardant upholstery textiles. It can be found in many different polymers including polycarbonates, polyesters, polyolefins, ABS, Polyamides, PVC and rubbers. 

We see e-waste as a resource conservation issue. We think that keeping (consumer electronics) products out of landfills is important because most often they are too valuable to be there. ... 

In one of its final assembly factories, Maxtor Corporation offers a component-level product. Hard Disk Drive (HDD), to its customers for further assembly of desktop PCs, high-end servers, consumer electronics products, network attached storage (NAS) server appliances, etc. (see www.maxtor.com). Maxtor has partnership-based B2B relationships with its customers. In this setting, customer orders are not given as specific order quantities and order due dates. Instead, only the total order quantity in each week is specified with permitted minimum and maximum quantity limits. In its order promising and fulfillment processes, Maxtor does not postpone customer orders to later weeks (i.e. no backorders), but it may deny customer orders subject to liability and/or penalties. While customer orders are promised weekly, the order fulfillment process is executed daily to provide accurate resource utilization and production schedules (see Ali, et al. 1998). 

Sony exhibited an experimental super high-resolution television (4 K TV) with this type of organic electroluminescent display at an intemahonal consumer electronic product trade show (CES) held in the United States from January 8 to 10, 2013. 

Major changes in production technology in the electronics industry will impact the plastics and additives industries. Sony has aimoimced that it will cut the munber of parts used in its consumer electronics products by up to 90%, while Toshiba is reducing them by 20%. These moves are likely to be copied by oAer manufacturers. Samsimg has aimounced a phase-out of brominated flame retardants, phthalates, organotin and PVC from its products. 

Today, infrared LEDs are used in a wide variety of applications, where they are typically paired with photodetectors. Infrared flux emitted by an LED source is transmitted a distance ranging from a few millimeters to many meters, and at the receiving end a photodiode or phototransistor detects the flux and converts it to an electrical signal. Silicon devices are most commonly used to detect the light emitted by Al Gai-xAs DH LEDs. Photodetectors made from In Gai-xAs are used with Ga Ini- AsyPi-y LEDs. Such emitter-detector pairs are used for the remote control of televisions and other consumer electronic products. Other applications for infrared LED-detector devices include intrusion alarms, blood gas analyzers, bar code readers, limit switches, and shaft encoders. 

There are manufacturers focusing on low value mass production parts and manufacturers doing their own R D and providing high value specialized parts as well as those focusing on assembly (e.g., FoxCram ). In consumer electronics products, the final assembly cost often is just 5-10 % of the cost of the part used in the assembly. 

Punch forming is used in the manufacture of very low cost, single-sided PCBs such as are used in many consumer electronic products. The process involves printing and etching the conductor patterns on one side of a laminate substrate, usually paper-reinforced epoxy. All holes are punched in a single stroke by a die containing a pin and opening for each hole. The PCB outline is formed in a second die that blanks it from the panel in which it is processed. 

Aerospace and industrial equipment require a higher reliability for the through holes than consumer electronic products. Copper plating thicker than 25 microns is recommended. 

For example. Philips has reduced its consumer electronics products warehouses in western Europe from 22 to just four. Likewise Apple Computers replaced their 13 national warehouses with two European RDCs. Similar examples can be found in just about every industry. 

NIST operates LF radio station WWVB from Fort Collins, Colorado, at a transmission frequency of 60 kHz. The station broadcasts 24 hr per day, with an effective radiated output power of 50 kW. The WWVB time code is synchronized with the 60-kHz carrier and contains the year, day of year, hour, minute, second, and flags that indicate the stams of DST, leap years, and leap seconds. The time eode is received and displayed by wristwatches, alarm clocks, wall clocks, and other consumer electronic products. 

Fatigue resistance Increased number of consumer electronics products Particularly communication, handheld devices Experiences many on/off cycles... 

---