Summary of 15 surface processes of e-cigarette and application of IMD and IML process in e-cigarette

Since the e-cigarette came out around 2006, it has experienced ups and downs all the way, and the development road is not smooth. The last cycle began in 2012 and ended in 2019, which basically represents the industry law, that is, a batch of opportunities appear every seven years. Therefore, the management of zhifuhong industry believes that in the new development cycle, if there is no policy support and strict industry standards for the e-cigarette industry, With the market access system, technological progress and the support of medical testing means, it is difficult to repeat the brilliance of the last development cycle. For the survival of e-cigarette OEM ODM OEM factories, brands and channels also need to survive, which puts forward higher requirements for the surface process of products. Therefore, in the absence of major changes in the above internal factors, manufacturers and brand channels paid more attention to the surface process design of products last time. As a professional IMD IML process manufacturer, zhifuhongye also had the same thinking, That is, the e-cigarette industry will largely use IMD IML process to replace the existing process. At present, the materials of e-cigarette mainly include aluminum alloy extruded profile, stainless steel, zinc alloy, plastic, glass, ceramics, silicone rubber sealing ring, etc. there are about 14 surface processes based on these materials, We make the following summary: 1. Sand blasting: the fully automatic sand blasting process uses compressed air as power to form a jet air flow. The professional fine sand particles used for spraying are sprayed onto the product surface with air, so as to form a more hand feel coating on the aluminum alloy surface, improve the bran type and texture of the e-cigarette shell and prolong the service life. Generally, the particle size of sand blasting is between 120 mesh and 180 mesh. The larger the number, the finer the spraying layer. 2. Oxidation: Generally speaking, aluminum alloys need to be anodized after sandblasting, and the color of anodizing can be tinted. Anodic oxidation refers to the formation of oxide film on the surface of metal or aluminum alloy as anode by electrolysis. After oxidation, aluminum alloy can improve corrosion resistance, enhance wear resistance and hardness, and protect metal surface. At present, due to environmental protection requirements in China, there are few aluminum alloy oxidation plants with environmental protection requirements in Shenzhen. At present, Dongguan has built a special electroplating plant and oxide layer Industrial Park. The whole industrial park is all electroplating plant and oxidation plant, which is convenient for centralized sewage treatment and environmental protection supervision. 3. Laser engraving: laser engraving technology is laser engraving technology. Because the English of laser is laser, it is directly translated into laser in the industry. In short, the laser beam is projected according to the design documents and burned on the product surface to form words or patterns. The product melts and gasifies instantly under the laser irradiation, that is, it becomes a wisp of green smoke and is sucked away by a special smoke exhaust duct, At the same time, the edges that are not irradiated remain the original coating, and the burned edges are smooth without damage. According to the type of laser, the color of radium carving can have a variety of different colors. It should be noted that this kind of radium carving laser will not produce a burning sensation on the skin, but it is not recommended to experiment for the sake of health. 4. Spraying: the bright surface is UV spraying, and the dumb surface is rubber oil spraying or dumb UV. However, the rubber oil spraying is difficult to meet the environmental protection requirements, so it is generally UV spraying. At present, most of the UV pearl powder spraying in the market is high-end atmospheric grade. At the same time, the spraying layer can improve the hardness of the product and make the product more scratch resistant. 5. PVD vacuum plating: physical vapor deposition. Under vacuum conditions, the material source or liquid surface is gasified into gaseous atoms, molecules, or partially ionized into ions by physical methods, and the film with certain special functions is deposited on the substrate surface through low-pressure gas (or plasma) process. We also call it vacuum plating, The disadvantage of this technology is that it can only deal with the plane or the part with small curvature at one time. If the curvature is large, the color will turn into the curved part, which will appear colorful or cannot be electroplated to the curved part at all. 6. Polishing: the process of using force, machinery or chemicals to reduce the surface roughness of the object. The polished workpiece surface is smooth and has good reflection effect. 7. Metal wire drawing: it is a surface treatment method that forms lines on the surface of the workpiece by grinding the product to achieve decorative effect. The methods of wire drawing include straight lines, random lines, rotary lines, etc. 8. Water transfer printing: the application of water transfer printing is mainly to leave the designed pattern on the product. The process is to first print the product pattern on the water sticker, then cut it into a single pattern and put it in special water for softening. After the layer is softened, the water is attached to the product surface. After the pattern is transferred to the product, remove the water sticker, and then bake the product, spray UV or rubber oil, bake it again, and cure the pattern and spraying layer. The disadvantage of this process is that there are many manual procedures, which are prone to different standards and errors. At the same time, the surface of the product is printed again, and the edge of the product is easy to wear and fall off. At present, this water paste process is basically replaced by IMD IML process. 9. Heat transfer: print the design pattern on the pet substrate, then fix it on the mold, put the mold into the vacuum box, extract the gas to make the pet firmly adhere to the surface of the product substrate, heat to transfer the pattern to the surface of the product substrate, then remove the substrate pet, and then spray the surface. At present, this process is rarely used in China, and most of them have been replaced by IMD and IML process. 10. Resin dripping: print the pattern, then cut it, put it into the mold, adjust the resin and curing agent according to a certain proportion and inject it into the mold. In order to ensure the effect, the mold must be placed horizontally to prevent the product from being bad due to the inclination of the mold. In addition, the resin process can add gold onion powder, gold foil paper, silver chips, flowers and other decorations to the resin to increase the diversity of products. 12.3d printing: UV printer is used to print the design pattern on the product. At present, this process is widely used in clothing and mobile phone case, but the effect is not ideal, the surface looks rough and low-grade, and there is basically no brand of electronic cigarette. 13. Peeling: the base material generally selects PC or ABS material as the carrier, and the surface selects leather or PU leather or wood grain sheet. The leather needs to be peeled to make the leather material have a uniform thickness, and then the hot melt adhesive process is used to firmly paste the surface leather or wood grain leather material onto the base material of the product. 14. Dyeing process: the biggest feature of the dyeing process is that it can dye different gradient colors at both ends of the electronic cigarette shell. Generally, the product is made of PC non hardness material. This process is widely used in mobile phones. 15. IMD IML process: in mold decoration and in mold lalbe in English, i.e. in mold decoration injection molding. The process is to print the designed pattern on the pet substrate through offset printing or printer, then print the white belly on the side of the attached pattern to display the printed pattern, and then print the adhesive. The function of the adhesive is to make the PET sheet and the PC substrate used for injection molding closely together without falling off, and then bake the PET sheet to ensure that the water is dried, Prevent the product deformation caused by the non drying of pet, then cut a large piece of PET sheet into a single product pattern, put it into the pet molding die for molding, and then put it into the punching die for punching. Put the punched sheet into the injection molding machine and PC for injection molding, so as to combine the PET sheet with PC. The side where the pet and sheet are combined is the printed pattern surface, so the pattern is in the middle of the pet and PC substrate, and the pattern is not on the surface of the pet, that is, not on the surface of the product, which ensures that the color irregularity of the product will not change with time. More importantly, the pattern will not fall off no matter how it is rubbed, unless the pet material layer on the surface is torn off, However, due to the role of adhesive, it is basically impossible to peel pet from the substrate. The original surface hardness of PET sheet can reach 2h, so there is no need for secondary spraying treatment. The pet surface can be distinguished between bright surface and dumb surface. If it is really necessary to spray rubber oil, the PET sheet with hardness lower than 1h needs to be used to make the product well first, and then spray oil. At present, the commonly used sheets in IMD IML process include 0.125mm and 0.128mm thick sheets, PC sheets, fengma cattle hard leather sheets, hard sheets after cotton cloth, carbon fiber imitation sheets, wire drawing sheets, 3D sheets, etc. the coating processes that can be used on the surface on the basis of printing include: Metal ink silk screen printing, gold / silver electroplating deplating, vacuum coating, rubber oil spraying, With its professional IMD IML production technology and rich experience in IMD IML mold development, zhifuhong industry produces high-quality IMD IML electronic cigarette covers for e-cigarette brands at home and abroad, and provides strong surface technology support for the strengthening and expansion of China's e-cigarette industry.