1 . Definition and classification of FPC manufacturing industry

FPC, also known as flexible printed PCB circuit board, is one of the printed PCB circuit board (PCB), is an important electronic device interconnection components of electronic equipment. FPC has incomparable advantages over other types of PCB. In the application of current electronic equipment, the probability of being replaced is low.

According to the type of sheet plastic film, FPC can be divided into polyimide (PI), polyester (PET) and PEN. Among them, polyimide FPC is the most common type of soft board. This kind of raw material has high temperature resistance, good specification and reliability, and it is the final product based on the inhibition of the protective film with both mechanical equipment maintenance and excellent dielectric strength of electrical equipment.

According to the number of stacked layers, FPC can be classified into single-sided FPC, two-layer FPC and two-layer FPC. The related production technology is based on the single-side FPC production technology, and is maintained according to the lamination technology.

2 , FPC manufacturing industry development trend analysis report

The key to the upstream and downstream of the flexible circuit board (FPC) is FCLL (flexible copper clad plate). The key of FCLL is composed of three types of raw materials, that is, the base film raw materials of the insulation layer, metal materials, electrical conductor foils and adhesives. At present, polyester film (PET plastic film) and polyimide film (PI plastic film) are the most widely used base film materials for insulation layer used in flexible copper clad plates. Metal material conductor foils are key by electrolysis copper mooring (ED) and rolled copper foil (RA), in which rolled copper foil (RA) is the more critical commodity. Adhesives are the key components of double layer flexible copperclad plates. Acrylate adhesives and epoxy resin adhesives are more critical commodities.

In 2015, the worldwide FPC sales market was about 11.84 billion US dollars, accounting for 20.6% of PCB sales. The world PCB value is estimated to reach $65.7 billion in 2017, of which the annual value of FPC is $15.7 billion. It is estimated that the annual value of FPC worldwide will reach $16.5 billion by 2018
In 2018, China accounted for about half of the world’s FPC production. Data show that the flexible circuit board (FPC) production in 2018 was 93.072 million square meters, a year-on-year increase of 16.3% from 8.03 million square meters in 2017.
3 Demand analysis report of the downstream of FPC manufacturing industry

1>. Automobile manufacturing

FPC because it can be bent, light weight etc., in recent years as the connecting parts are widely used in car ECU (electronic device control module), such as table board, speakers, screen display information has high data signals and the high trust regulation of machinery and equipment, according to the survey, each car car FPC usage of more than 100 pieces of or so.

In 2018, the world’s car sales reached 95,634,600 units. With the continuous improvement of the level of intelligent car system, intelligent living cars need to be equipped with a lot of car body controllers and displays, and the electronic equipment equipped with them is far more than that of ordinary cars. From 2012 to 2020, the total number of on-board display screens will be increased by 233%, exceeding the total output of small cars by 2020, exceeding 100 million/year. With the import substitution, the development trend of engineering and the improvement of the total scale of operation, the total number and quality of the FPC used for the vehicle-mounted display have been clearly put forward higher requirements.

2>. Smart wearable devices

With the popularity of AR/VR/ wearable sales market all over the world, international large and medium-sized electronic product manufacturers such as Google, Microsoft, iPhone, Samsung and Sony are competing to increase their efforts and product research and development. Leading Chinese companies such as Baidu Search, Xunxun, Qihoo 360 and Xiaomi are also competing to reasonably layout the smart wearable device industry.

In 2018, more than 172.15 million smart wearables were sold worldwide. In the first half of 2019, 83.8 million smart wearables were sold worldwide, and it is estimated that by 2021, the worldwide sales of smart wearables will exceed 252 million units. FPC has the characteristics of light weight and bendable, which is the most suitable for smart wearables and is the preferred connection component of smart wearables. FPC manufacturing industry will become one of the vested interests in the sales market of smart wearables with rapid development.

4, FPC manufacturing industry market competition layout analysis

Because of the late development of China’s FPC manufacturing industry, foreign companies with the advantages of first mover such as Japan, Japan Fujimura, China Taiwan Zhen Ding, China Taiwan Taijun, etc., have had a more inseparable business process cooperation with the middle and downstream customers, and have occupied the dominant FPC sales market in China. Although the difference in technology and quality of domestic FPC products is significantly smaller than that of foreign companies, its production capacity and operation scale still lag behind that of foreign companies, so it is in a disadvantage when competing for medium and downstream large and medium-sized high-quality customers.

With the further improvement of the overall strength of China’s local well-known brands of electronic equipment, Hongxin has made great efforts to reasonably layout the FPC industry chain in recent years with the help of local FPC manufacturers in China. Hongxin Electronic Technology specializes in FPC product research and development, design, production and marketing, and is the leading FPC enterprise company in China. In the future, China’s local FPC companies will gradually increase their market share.

In order to promote the development trend of intelligent system in China’s processing industry, in December 2016, the country implemented the “overall planning of China’s intelligent manufacturing system” in the 13th Five-Year Plan, which clearly put forward that in 2020, the traditional manufacturing industry in China will be intelligent update and transformation, and in 2025, the top priority company will maintain the development of intelligent system transformation. Intelligent manufacturing system has become a key driving force for the transformation and development of China’s processing industry and the promotion of competitiveness. Especially in the FPC flexible circuit board labor-intensive enterprise transformation and upgrading requirements are great, in China’s intelligent manufacturing system manufacturing industry in the future development prospects.

Our company Dongguan Kangna electronics technology co.ltd will cater to the FPC development trend and enlarge the FPC and rigid-flex PCB production capacity in future.


Post time: Mar-23-2021