Colorful light contours for an unusual product design

Plastic film with shining edges

Leverkusen – Makrofol® LISA polycarbonate film from Bayer MaterialScience AG provides designers with enormous scope for creating plastic parts with a highly unusual and very striking colored light around the edges. The transparent film collects incident light, conveys it to the edges and allows it to emerge there, shining brightly. Molded parts thus exhibit a clearly visible edge lighting that emphasizes their contours. “This kind of corona effect is attractive for many Makrofol® applications. We are thinking, for example, of displays and dials, advertising articles, trade show booths, furniture and the printing industry,” says Norbert Kinzel, head of the Films Unit in the Coatings, Adhesives, Specialties Business Unit.

Potential applications include business cards, posters, traffic signs, presentation screens, fashion accessories and labels for sportswear such as ski clothing. “Our light-emitting film could also be used to design components for lamps, as well as frames, beading strips and facings for cupboards and chairs,” says Kinzel.

Makrofol® LISA is available in green, orange and red in sheets measuring 300 x 1000 mm. The light-collecting film has all the properties that standard Makrofol® films have – high heat resistance, toughness and elasticity over a broad temperature range as well as good electrical insulation properties. It can be molded hot or cold, and can also be back-injected and stiffened with a thermoplastic using the Film Insert Molding (FIM) technique. It can be readily printed with standard inks, for example by screen printing or digital printing.

Bayer MaterialScience has appointed Vink Holding B.V. as a distribution partner for the Makrofol® LISA business. This Dutch company is based in Didam (www.vinkkunststoffen.nl) and is specialized in plastic film. It also supplies other distributors with the film. “This ensures that the product reaches the customers in the right colors quickly and flexibly,” says Kinzel.

About Bayer MaterialScience:
With 2008 sales of EUR 9.7 billion, Bayer MaterialScience is among the world’s largest polymer companies. Business activities are focused on the manufacture of high-tech polymer materials and the development of innovative solutions for products used in many areas of daily life. The main segments served are the automotive, electrical and electronics, construction and sports and leisure industries. Bayer MaterialScience has 30 production sites around the globe and employed approximately 15,100 people at the end of 2008. Bayer MaterialScience is a Bayer Group company.

For more information visit www.bayermaterialscience.com.