LG Chem, one of the LG firms, has developed a cover window, using their innovative flexible coating material that can fold like plastic while keeping its strength, durability, and glass-like appearance. LG Chem’s cover window, which is a protective element over the screen and digitizers is referred to as a “Real Folding window” which is a few millimeters thick that can be folded more than 200,000 times before showing any signs of wear.
What makes LG Chem’s foldable screen a significant breakthrough in the foldable smartphone industry, is that it can be folded both inwards and outwards allowing a vast of configurations on the screen displays using LG Chem’s innovative coating material.
The Real Folding window is developed by coating both sides of PET film, a type of thin plastic, with micrometers thick LG Chem’s coated materials which could enhance the heat-resistance, mechanical properties of the plastic materials. This makes the cover window not only thinner than the existed tempered glass but also the same thickness without any cracking in the screen. “LG Chem is also developing technologies to produce a thin 'Real Folding Window' with only coating and not needing PET films.”
"Unlike existing polyimide films and tempered glass-type materials, the cover window that applied LG Chem's new coating technologies will maximize flexibility, while also providing optimized solutions for foldable phones such as making improvements to chronic issues like fold impressions on the connecting part of the screen."
Chang Do Ki (Vice President IT Materials Division. Advanced Materials) commented, "Through the Real Folding Window that we newly developed, we were able to take a step closer to resolving the pain points of customers, and we have already received proposals for joint projects from multiple clients." He added, "We will strengthen our partnerships with leading companies of the smartphone industry and expand our market starting with mobiles and going on to new foldable applications such as laptops and tablets."
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