High-flow nylon 4,6 replaces LCP to reduce PC Card warpage

Warpage has long been a problem for PC cards made with liquid crystal polymers, leading Tyco Amp Den Bosch to seek out material alternatives for its PCMIA PC cards for mobile computers.

Heat generated by mobile computers during operation is what warps these PC cards but Tyco found the needed heat-resistance in a high-flow Stanyl nylon 4,6 from Sittard, The Netherlands-based DSM Engineering Plastics.

And because the Stanyl fit within the production processes of the laptop computer mainboard, which requires lead-free soldering of surface-mount electronic components, the material switch was relatively inexpensive.

“We worked with Tyco to reduce rejects due to warping,” Patrick Duis, DSM’s application development manager, connectors, said. “Stanyl enables consistent production of the highly detailed part, and we were able to help Tyco achieve lower per-part cost.”

DSM Engineering Plastics – America; www.dsm.com; 800-333-4237