MOSCOW (MRC) -- Asahi Kasei Chemicals has developed AZP as a new optical polymer featuring zero birefringence achieved through novel molecular design. Manufacturing facilities for AZP will be constructed at the company’s Chiba Plant (Sodegaura, Chiba, Japan), with start-up scheduled for early next year, reported the company on its site.
Applications for AZP are anticipated in high-performance displays and various optical components.
As information technology continues to advance, TVs, PCs, smartphones, and in-car navigation systems increasingly require displays that provide higher definition, more efficient utilization of light, and lower power consumption. Developed by Asahi Kasei Chemicals, AZP meets these emerging market needs as the world’s first plastic material featuring zero birefringence, achieved through novel molecular design.
As conventional polymers for displays have birefringence characteristics, some of the light passing through is refracted or leaked, resulting in diminished contrast and lower clarity. Because it has no birefringence, AZP enables clearer images and more efficient utilization of light. With its light weight and easy processability, AZP is the ideal substitute for glass in display screens.
Asahi Kasei Chemicals will continue to develop new applications for AZP and provide high-quality and high-performance products, while studying further expansions of production capacity in accordance with market needs.
As MRC wrote previously, Asahi Kasei’s (Tokyo, Japan) Fibers division will expand production capacity for polypropylene spunbond nonwovens in Thailand at its subsidiary Asahi Kasei Spunbond (Thailand) Co. AKST will add a new production line of 20,000 metric tons per year capacity which, combined with its existing production line, will double its capacity for spunbond nonwovens to 40,000 m.t/yr. The investment for the capacity expansion is approximately USD5 billion, with a scheduled startup of November 2015.
MRC