The flexible PI film market has promising development prospects. Local companies still need to accelerate breakthroughs in key technologies.

Flexible PI film is a flexible polyimide film, which is made of pyromellitic dianhydride (PMDA) and diaminodiphenyl ether (ODA) in a strong polar solvent through polycondensation and casting to form a film and then through imide Thin-film insulating materials produced by chemicals. Flexible PI film has the advantages of high insulation, good adhesion, strong radiation resistance, strong high temperature resistance, and good chemical stability. It is a type of organic polymer material with excellent comprehensive properties.

At this stage, flexible PI films have been widely used in electronics, liquid crystal displays, machinery, aerospace, computers, photovoltaic cells and other fields. Among them, liquid crystal display is the main application field of flexible PI film. In this field, flexible PI film has become a new material to replace traditional ITO glass with its excellent characteristics. It is widely used in folding screen mobile phone substrates, covers, and touch material manufacturing scenarios.

With OLED replacing LED as the current trend in the display industry, display panels are changing from curved panels to foldable and bendable display panels. Against this background, flexible PI film has become the category with the best comprehensive performance among flexible substrate materials for display panels, and the market shows good development prospects.

According to the “China Flexible PI Film Industry Analysis and Investment Strategy Consulting Report During the “14th Five-Year Plan” period” released by the Industrial Research Center, At present, my country’s folding screen mobile phone market shipments are showing rapid growth, and the market penetration rate of folding screen products is constantly increasing. In 2022, domestic foldable screen mobile phone shipments have reached 3.425 million units, a year-on-year increase of 121.4%. As a key substrate material for folding screen mobile phone display panels, flexible PI film has continued to grow in market demand and its scale has increased year by year. In 2022, my country’s flexible PI film market size will exceed 6.5 billion yuan.

Flexible PI film is a technology-intensive industry with high industry entry barriers. At present, the global market is still dominated by foreign companies such as the United States, Japan, and South Korea. Major companies include DuPont of the United States, Jongyon of Japan, Toray of Japan, and Ube Kosan of Japan. , South Korea SKC Kolon PI, South Korea LG, etc.

my country’s flexible PI film industry started late. Restricted by the technology monopoly of leading international companies, domestic electronic-grade flexible PI films are currently highly dependent on imports. Domestic flexible PI film production capacity is still mainly concentrated in the low-end field. There are very few companies with electronic-grade flexible PI film mass production capabilities. There are only a few such as Ruihuatai, Changchun Gaoqi, and Guilin Electric Power Research Institute, and local companies are in technology. Compared with leading foreign companies in terms of product performance and other aspects, there is a large gap, and there is huge room for industry growth in the future.

Industry analysts said that flexible PI film is a widely used thin film insulation material. Currently, it is soft and bendable. With its advantages and other advantages, it has become the substrate material with the best comprehensive performance in the field of display panels, and its market development prospects are promising. However, due to technical limitations, domestic flexible PI film products are still mainly concentrated in the mid-to-low-end market, and high-end products mainly rely on imports. In the future, local companies will need to accelerate breakthroughs in key technologies and promote the continuous improvement of localization levels.