The availability of thin films of amorphous and filled polymers opens up whole new commercial applications spaces in the fields of electronics, alternative energy, pharmaceuticals, optics, injection molding, thermoforming, and membrane technology, just to name a few.

Electronics

In electronics, the benefits of the high dielectric constant and temperature resistance of high performance amorphous and filled polymers are well known, and are used to advantage in such processes as reflow soldering of printed circuit boards. However, in the past, polymer manufacturing constraints have limited films of these polymers to be relatively thick, or relatively expensive. (see the technology page) The Tripartisan technology allows the existence of thin, freestanding films which can open up whole new design spaces in the miniaturization of electronic components such as flexible printed circuit boards, flexible circuitry and flexible electronics. In addition, capacitor dielectrics can be made from the high temperature films and dielectric films from Tripartisan technologies. The high solids loading capacity of Tripartisan thin plastic films also lends itself to the manufacture of films for lighting, flexible solar supports, and nanocrystal solar cells where quantum dots and needle conductors need to be tightly packed in polymers which are optically, thermally and physically suitable. Webs necessary for giant dielectric permittivity using nanogold particles can be made at reduced cost using Tripartisan technology. If the current products available from Tripartisan are not suitable for the electronics application, Tripartisan will enthusiastically work with its’ customers to develop filled or unfilled low micron supports for application in the electronics industry.

Alternative Energy

Tripartisan processing technology particularly lends itself to the high volume production of polymer membranes applicable in battery and fuel cells. Tripartisan webs can be manufactured into thin multilayer, multifunctional PEM membranes allowing the efficient diffusion of protons while blocking the diffusion of fuel, contaminants, or oxidizer in a hydrogen fuel cell, direct methanol fuel cell, or direct ethanol fuel cell. Tripartisan technology can be used to make inexpensive pervaporation membranes which allow the separation of ethanol and water. Water contamination is a common problem in the effort to transport biofuels like ethanol through commercial pipelines, and the use of pervaporation installations can be used to dramatically decrease water contamination of biofuels in pipelines, storage depots, gas stations and automobiles. If the current products available from Tripartisan are not suitable for the alternate energy application, Tripartisan will enthusiastically work with its’ customers to develop filled or unfilled multilayer membranes for application in this industry.

Pharmaceuticals

Controlled drug release through the skin can be more efficiently facilitated by amorphous polymers than by semicrystalline or crystalline polymers, since crystallinity is a barrier to diffusion into the body. In addition, certain biocompatible polymers can also be made much thinner than current technology allows, opening up several new pharmaceutical applications. In addition, semicrystalline biodegradable polymers like polylactic acid (PLA), when processed using Tripartisan manufacturing methods, might be made with a lower crystallinity, and therefore have lower barriers to diffusion than PLA using conventional manufacturing techniques. If the current products available from Tripartisan are not suitable for the pharmaceutical application, Tripartisan will enthusiastically work with its’ customers to develop filled or unfilled low micron supports for application in the pharmaceuticals industry.

Optics

Tripartisan technology allows for the manufacture of several nonlinear optical films and electro optical supports. Our ability to process unusual polymers into low micron webs, as well as the ability to disperse high levels of various optically active fillers gives Tripartisan a unique advantage in the manufacture of optical films and optical thin films. Many amorphous and filled polymers have unique attributes when used in films only a few microns thick. If the current products available from Tripartisan are not suitable for the optics application, Tripartisan will enthusiastically work with its’ customers to develop filled or unfilled low micron webs for application in the optics industry.

Injection Molding and Thermoforming

A current trend in injection molding, thermoforming and the manufacture of thermoset composites is the partial or complete replacement of post processing operations (such as painting) with the use of functional films. The use of functional films reduces the post processing cost (often 40% of total production costs) and significantly reduces solvent emissions. Tripartisan allows the use of much thinner webs, and webs with higher solids loading than are currently available. Thin plastic supports made of such amorphous polymers as PMMA can be used to induce an aesthetically pleasing sheen while simultaneously reducing the roughness from the mold caused by structural reinforcing additives. Reduced micron films such as polycarbonate can also be used to improve surface strength or printability. In addition, webs with UV protection, high pigment loading, or other additives and characteristics are ideal in certain applications. Injection molders are currently adapting injection molding equipment to use injection molding webs, and the manufacturers of sheet molding compound (SMC) can use thermoforming supports made by Tripartisan films in laminations where coextrusion of a thin film with the other thick layers of polymers in the sheet molding compound is impractical. The fact that Tripartisan products are so thin makes them attractive for the thermoset composite application, since chemicals can diffuse through the thin films at a higher rate during thermoset curing. If the current products available from Tripartisan are not suitable for the injection molding, thermoforming, or thermoset application, Tripartisan will enthusiastically work with its’ customers to develop filled or unfilled supports for application in these industries.

Membranes

Because Tripartisan films can be made thin and multilayered, they are excellent for use as membranes. These thin polymer webs can be used for electrodialysis, gas separation, or simple semipermeable membranes allowing only the desired material to pass while blocking undesirable materials in a way that single layer membranes cannot do. If the current products available from Tripartisan are not suitable for the membrane application, Tripartisan will enthusiastically work with its’ customers to develop filled or unfilled multilayer thin films for application in the membrane industry.

In the past, it has been quite difficult to manufacture very thin films from amorphous and highly filled polymers. This is because the melt strength of these materials is too low to facilitate the "drawing down" necessary to obtain webs with thicknesses of a few microns. Examples of these classes of materials are high strength/high temperature plastics such as polycarbonates and polyetherimides, as well as optical plastics such as acrylics and polycyclo-olefins. To get around this difficulty, several manufacturers have tried to dissolve the polymers in such solvents as dichloromethane, acetone, etc., and coated the resulting solutions as thin films after removing the solvents through evaporation. However these processes are environmentally challenging, require very high capital costs to implement, and have difficulty incorporating insoluble functional additives. The solvents used in these processes are often suspected carcinogens, and/or toxic and flammable. In addition, the few films made from the solvent coating process are often unavoidably contaminated with the residual solvents which reduce physical, optical and electric properties.

Thin webs of highly filled polymers (polymers filled with 10% of inorganic particles) are also difficult to manufacture, since, like amorphous polymers, they have very low melt strength. In addition to this problem, addition of inorganics often dramatically increases the viscosity of the polymer melts, contributing to such well known problems as melt fracture and shark skin, which significantly decrease the quality of films made from these materials.

In contrast, Tripartisan has developed a process to manufacture high quality thin films from these materials using solventless techniques which also allow high volume, high throughput and low capital cost. These innovations open up whole new dimensions in applications of heretofore intractable materials in the fields of electronics, pharmaceuticals, optics, membranes and alternative energy development.