UniPixel, headquartered in the Woodlands, Texas, has achieved production qualification for its Diamond Guard hard coat film along with Carestream Tollcoating, a manufacturing and distribution partner of UniPixel.
Carestream Tollcoating is a provider of high-precision optical grade PET film and contract coating services for battery, nanotechnology, electronic, display, printed electronics and various other flexible advanced material markets. UniPixel and Carestream have established a facility for a large volume production of over 100 million sq. ft. of Diamond Guard film per year. The facility manufactures the film either as a protective cover or as a cover glass replacement product. UniPixel was able to complete several purchase orders for Diamond Guard from major film converters, electronic OEMs and ODMs.
Diamond Guard hard coat film is a low cost alternative to glass products, including Gorilla Glass, and has a glass-equivalent shiny finish. It is thinner, lighter, flexible and highly resistant to scratches. In addition, the film is super hard, shatterproof and less labor-intensive. Diamond Guard is offered in large rolls that can either be laser-cut or die-cut to the required size, which helps save manufacturing costs. The material does not need special surface treatment for bonding. All these features make the hard coat film ideal for a broad range of applications, ranging from small electronic devices to large screen televisions.
OEMs and ODMs have revealed their interest to combine UniPixel's Diamond Guard protective cover film with its UniBoss touch sensor for producing a thinner, highly cost effective touch screen display. The combined product offers one-fifth the thickness of existing touch screen displays in the market. Hence, UniPixel expects UniBoss can be a considerable growth driver for its Diamond Guard in 2013. In addition, the company intends to launch a UniBoss product embedded with ultra-thin conductive elements over film surfaces that are printed in various grid patterns and sizes.