Miniaturisation is a technological and design trend emerging in countless application areas within the electrical and electronics sectors. Essentially, it involves minimising the size of electrical circuits, active and passive elements, connectors and housings in order to reduce the weight and size of complex devices, yet without compromising their functionality.
Miniaturisation is used not only in portable devices and computer science, but also in actuators, switches, regulators, relays, SMD components, and so on, because the scaling of electrical circuits is a process applied across a whole range of fields, such as electrical appliances, e-mobility, the world of circuit-breakers of various kinds, and so on.
Increasing the number of electronic elements per unit of surface area raises various issues that need to be analysed and managed, such as heat accumulation, enhanced performance and the need to comply with strict fire safety regulations.
To meet the needs of the E&E sector, materials also need to offer characteristics tailored to the
geometric dimensions of the project. Plastic products, in particular, have to show adequate flame resistance, even at much thinner-than-usual thicknesses.
LATI has obtained the UL 94 V0 rating at 0.4 mm for two of its top self-extinguishing compounds: LATAMID 66 H2 G/25-V0CT1 and LATAMID 66 H2PX-V0.
These two grades are based on PA66 and a brominated self-extinguishing additive; the first is 25% glass fiber reinforced and the second toughened with elastomers but not reinforced.
Both have been in use since the dawn of modern microelectronics and have recorded numerous success stories thanks to their high self-extinguishing power, which makes them safe in the presence of a naked flame and even an incandescent wire, which is the test required by the IEC60335 standard for household appliances.
Their mechanical characteristics are such that glassfibre-reinforced compounds are ideal for producing housings, supports for live elements, and other structural parts, which are easily moulded, even at very even at very low thicknesses, thanks to the excellent thermal stability of the material.
The toughened compounds, on the other hand, are perfect for the production of connectors and for anything requiring high flexibility and resilience.
Other details and characteristics are listed in the technical data sheets for the two compounds, which can be consulted on www.lati.com.
The term household appliances is used increasingly loosely as a result of the versatility and multi-functionality of the items offered.
The vehicles used for transporting people and goods constitute a hugely important field of application for plastic compounds, especially in the context of current efforts to reduce the environmental footprint of transport.