From "Gimmicky Concept" to "Mainstream Trend": The Material Science Behind Foldable Phones' Explosive Popularity
2024-10-16 15:08
In recent years, if you've paid even a little attention, you'll have noticed that foldable phones are no longer just "display models" in mall showcases. They are increasingly appearing in friends' hands, on café tables, and during subway commutes. Early adopters might have been drawn to the novelty of folding. Today, however, the "productivity" aspect of larger foldables (handling documents, split-screen operation) and the "fashion accessory" appeal of flip-style foldables (sleek, portable) are widely recognized as tangible reasons to purchase.
In 2023, sales of foldable phones in the Chinese market surged by 114% year-on-year, making them the only high-growth segment in the overall market. From Huawei and Samsung to Honor, Xiaomi, OPPO, and Vivo, almost all major manufacturers have entered the fray, forming a complete product matrix of horizontal (large fold) and vertical (flip) designs. This is no longer tentative exploration but a full-scale, strategic competition.
Pain Points Overcome, Driving Popularity:
1.Products like the Honor Magic V2 and Huawei Mate X3 have reduced thickness and weight to levels close to flagship slab phones, making portability no longer a drawback.
2.Hinge durability has increased from hundreds of thousands to millions of folds, and the strength of UTG glass covers has significantly improved, allowing users to feel confident in daily use.
3.As technology matures and production scales, price barriers continue to fall, making foldables affordable for more and more consumers.
The Huawei Mate X5 being constantly out of stock, the Samsung Z Flip series becoming a favorite among fashion influencers, the Honor Magic V2 redefining slimness... the success of these hit products continuously fuels market excitement, establishing foldable phones as the focal point where technology and trend converge.
This market-sweeping foldable storm is rooted not merely in hinge design or software optimization, but in a quiet yet profound revolution happening at the material level. High-performance composite materials are the fundamental bedrock supporting all these innovations.
1.Flexible Cover Plate: The Stage for Transparent Polyimide (CPI) Composites
Traditional glass cannot withstand hundreds of thousands of folds. CPI (Colorless Polyimide) film, with its exceptional flexibility and fatigue resistance, has become the primary choice. To compensate for its lower hardness, a high-hardness coating is often applied, creating a functional composite material that combines rigidity with flexibility, ensuring it remains smooth and pristine after repeated folding.
2.Hinge and Body: The Arena for Ultra-Light, High-Strength Materials
These are key to achieving extreme thinness, lightness, and reliability. Materials like Carbon Fiber Composites (CFRP) and Liquid Metal (Amorphous Alloy) play crucial roles here.
CFRP, with its very high specific strength (strong yet low density), is used to create ultra-thin and light internal skeletons and support plates, crucial for achieving that "slab phone feel."
Liquid Metal, surpassing traditional metals in strength, hardness, and elastic limit, is ideal for manufacturing precise, durable small hinge components, ensuring the hinge maintains its precision throughout its long lifecycle.
3.Internal Functional Layers: The Precise World of Conductive and Thermal Management Composites
Flexible printed circuits (FPCs), electromagnetic shielding layers, and chip thermal management systems all rely on specialty composite materials.
For instance, circuits printed with conductive silver paste (a composite of silver particles and an organic vehicle) must maintain stable conductivity during bending.
High-thermal-conductivity graphene composites are responsible for rapidly spreading heat from the chip, ensuring sustained performance.
ZYE Three Roll Mills and Vacuum Planetary Mixers: Precision Instruments for Composite Materials
The core performance of composite materials hinges entirely on uniform dispersion. Any microscopic agglomeration - whether of silver particles in conductive paste or boron nitride fillers in thermal gels - severely compromises final performance. The ZYE Three Roll Mill utilizes tremendous shear forces to achieve uniform, agglomerate-free dispersion of nano-scale silver particles within organic vehicles, producing pastes with stable conductive pathways and consistent resistivity. This directly determines the performance and reliability of flexible circuits. For CPI hardening coatings and Optical Clear Adhesives (OCA) containing nano-scale silica and other fillers, three roll milling ensures perfectly even distribution, guaranteeing optimal light transmittance, hardness, and surface smoothness of the coatings.
Material Processing Results with Three-Roll Mill
In devices as precise as foldable screens, microscopic bubbles within materials represent absolute defects. Before screen lamination, vacuum planetary mixer must thoroughly remove every single bubble from the adhesive materials. Otherwise, when the screen is lit, even one tiny bubble becomes a permanent flaw, resulting in the entire screen assembly being scrapped. During grinding and mixing processes, slurries can entrap air. The ZYE vacuum planetary mixer serves as the final quality checkpoint before dispatch, ensuring every drop of slurry is dense and flawless, thereby guaranteeing the perfect execution of coating and printing processes.
Mixing and Deaeration Results with Planetary Mixer
The explosive growth of foldable phones vividly illustrates the innovation model of high-end manufacturing: the competitiveness of end products is deeply dependent on advancements in upstream materials science, while the ultimate realization of these materials relies entirely on the support of cutting-edge precision manufacturing equipment. It is precisely through the meticulous refinement of "masterpiece" equipment like ZYE Planetary Mixers and Three Roll Mills, working at the microscopic level, that the full potential of composite materials is unleashed, ultimately unfolding this vast new world in the palms of our hands.
Shenzhen ZYE Technology Co., Ltd.
No. 1268 Jiaotong Road, Wujiang Economic and Technological Development Zone, Suzhou (factory)
Building B, Fuhai Science and Technology Industrial Park, Huafeng Zhigu, Fuhai Street, Bao' an District, Shenzhen (factory)
Contact Us
Social media
Whatsapp: +8613682681189
Wechat: +8613682681189
©2025 Suzhou ZYE Precision Technology Co., Ltd. Powered by www.300.cn SEO Privacy Policy