TC TECH has developed a new material for high-resolution matrices in collaboration with the Taiwanese electroforming company Hui Fong
By using extremely detailed matrices manufactured in the new material, customers will be able to utilise the capabilities of TC TECH’s production system to a maximum.
Matrices are thin plates that contain the structures to be embossed into thin plastic details, and they are usually manufactured in pure nickel. For simpler and slightly more advanced matrices this has been fully adequate, but to be able to fully utilise the capabilities of TC TECH’s production system, matrices with a corresponding quality and resolution are needed.
The new material is a nickel alloy with a high concentration of cobalt that is suitable for making matrices with even finer patterning compared to what was previously possible. Huifong, a Taiwan-based company focusing on nickel-cobalt electroforming, was TC TECH’s collaboration partner during the development of the new material.
“Our production system can be compared to the latest 8K TV sets, while traditional nickel matrices that constitute the moulds for what the system prints (or play in this analogy) cannot handle more than 4K resolution, and even that is a stretch, without introducing noise in the picture. We have basically been a little ahead of our time. By creating this new material, we have been able to upgrade another important part of the production chain for the manufacturing of very thin and detailed plastic details to the same high standard as our system,” says TC TECH’s CTO Jan Jäderberg.
Every step in the manufacturing of matrices in the new material has been chemically validated and mechanically validated in electron microscope at TC TECH’s facilities and at a Taiwan-based customer’s facilities. The customer has then approved the new material.
“It will be exciting to see what can be achieved now that we unlock more of the potential in our production system. There is a demand for matrices with extremely high resolution in several application areas, not least when it comes to light diffusers for mini and micro LED displays,” says TC TECH’s CEO Alexander Luiga.
