Plastic Phone Case Manufacture Tips

Currently the cell phone case market involves a variety of materials, the most common are soft plastic (such as silicone, TPU), hard plastic (such as PC, ABS, PP), metal, leather, as well as some special materials, such as carbon fiber, bamboo, wood and so on. The following is a detailed description of the characteristics and advantages of the different materials used in the production of plastic phone cases.

1:Silicone cell phone case

Silicone phone cases are mainly divided into solid silicone and liquid silicone. Solid silicone adopts vulcanization molding process, through the upper and lower open molding of silicone raw material heating and pressure molding. Insufficient mold precision may lead to more obvious burrs when trimming, affecting the appearance.

Liquid silicone phone cases use injection molding process, compared with solid silicone is softer and more comfortable, but the price is also higher. Liquid silicone phone cases are made of liquid silicone, PC and velvet. It should be noted that there are some low-quality alternatives on the market that use solid silicone to pretend to be liquid silicone, or use TPU and spray feel oil, so careful consideration should be made when choosing a supplier.

2:TPU plastic phone case

TPU stands for Thermoplastic Urethane and is often referred to as a “water cover”. Compared to silicone, TPU cases are softer and can be easily bent and quickly returned to their original shape.

Many people have trouble distinguishing between silicone and TPU, and even some sellers get confused and call the soft ones silicone. Here are some explanations about them.

Silicone belongs to the category of rubber, while TPU belongs to the category of plastic.TPU phone cases are made by injection molding process, through the plastic particles are heated and melted, and then injected into the plastic mold through the screw to make products.

TPU is slightly harder and more flexible than silicone. TPU can be compared to a muscle feeling, while silicone is more like a fat feeling. In terms of appearance, TPU is able to make transparent plastic cell phone cases, while silicone cannot. It is because TPU has this transparent feeling that it is more popular among users. In addition, TPU phone cases are more selective, with more varied patterns and styles than silicone.

The disadvantage of TPU is that it is easy to yellow. Yellowing can easily occur after three or four months of use, especially if you have purchased a transparent, light-colored product. Some low-quality materials may even have problems with foggy surfaces or sticky hands. Choosing a professional TPU plastic phone case factory is crucial, Grandshine specializes in plastic phone cases and has successfully produced high-quality phone cases for incipio, casemate, tech21, speck and other brands.

3:PC Plastic mobilephone cases

PC, or polycarbonate, is a thermoplastic engineering plastic. pc plastic has excellent toughness and transparency, the product can be made very thin, the thinnest iPhone case can be up to 0.5mm. pc plastic phone cases are available in a variety of colors, such as pure transparent, transparent black, and transparent blue.

In addition, the following are some PC plastic cell phone case processing technology:

a) PC vacuum plating process: Plating on the PC case, engraving some patterns after the plating is completed, the texture is better. However, UV varnish treatment is needed after vacuum plating, and if it is not treated properly, orange peel-like lines may appear on the surface of the product. Therefore, this process looks beautiful at first, but on closer inspection, only a few products are well done, similar to stars looking bright on TV and movies, but actually average up close.

b) PC spraying process: You can spray rubberized oil and this feel is also loved by many. More complex process is to spray a layer of primer on the colored transparent PC shell, then laser engraved some patterns, and finally rubber paint treatment, this product looks very high-grade.

(c) PC water transfer thermal transfer process: some transfer patterns on the PC shell, and then spray UV varnish or rubber oil with a soft feel. For spraying UV varnish transfer products, the surface of the UV varnish is relatively easy to crack, so it is best to choose the process of spraying rubber oil, with a soft touch and matte surface, well-made process will appear very high-grade. The disadvantage is that the surface is not very scratch-resistant, if a localized paint loss, may be more along the paint off the place. The advantage of transfer printing is that the pattern is very colorful.

4:ABS plastic phone case

It is usually rare to use pure ABS material to make protective cases (currently mainly used for luggage), because the material of ABS is relatively hard and the strength is not as good as PC. However, there is now a new process called IML-In mold label, which basically uses ABS plastic, and the surface material is PET.

The characteristic of this process is that the surface can present a rich pattern, which has the same advantages as the transfer process. More importantly, its pattern is usually more fine than the transfer pattern, the texture is stronger, and the surface of PET if the use of hardened PET material, it is not easy to scrape off with fingernails. Therefore, relatively speaking, the product grade of the IML process is usually higher than that of the thermal transfer, with a strong gloss. If IML is sprayed with rubber oil, it is a high-grade product. It can make some imitation carbon fiber effect, have a three-dimensional effect or have a touch of the product, its color may be the richest of all categories. The disadvantage is that compared with PC, this shell feels hard when installing, and it may crack if it falls to the ground and falls very hard.

5:PP material plastic phone case

At present, it is not the mainstream choice, mainly because the process is not mature and there are many defects. Because PP itself is a relatively cheap raw material, some manufacturers choose this raw material because they do not have high-speed injection molding machines and want to make ultra-thin protective shells. The defect of this product is easy to deform, it is not recommended to choose.

6:Leather phone case

High quality holsters are usually made of sheepskin or cowhide. Under normal circumstances, the first layer of leather will be used, and the inner layer will use pu material to reduce costs and achieve the visual effect of leather.

Holsters are a popular option. Compared with the relatively simple texture of the silicone sleeve, business people are more inclined to use a decent leather case in the workplace. Different from the trend of young people to pursue individuality, for these business people, the use of a slightly single color mobile phone is more sophisticated.

7：Metal phone case

The texture of metal products is undoubtedly very excellent, most of the products are of higher grade, and the surface treatment process is also quite mature. At present, the common metal mobile phone cases mainly include aluminum alloy and magnesium alloy.

However, there are some inconveniences in the installation of metal phone cases. If it is a screw installation product, you need to be careful, because the metal material is usually aluminum alloy, no matter what kind of so-called aviation aluminum or other aluminum, the screw hole is easy to slip.

8:Special material – Carbon fiber

The protective shell made of carbon fiber is so hard that it is almost impossible to bend with your hand. An experiment was conducted in which the carbon fiber protective shell was thrown onto the tile floor, making a crisp sound, and after many bounces, it was still trampled. It is said that the carbon fiber phone case has bulletproof function, of course, the price is quite expensive.

However, this hardness is not the main advantage of carbon fiber in the protective case. Too hard but disadvantageous, choose this material users mainly fancy carbon fiber unique crystal clear three-dimensional effect. Since the carbon fiber needs to be polished after forming in the mold, the surface has no parting line and can be polished. The quality of grinding is closely related to the virtuosity of the production process, and there are not many really good products, so the price is relatively high.

9:Conclusion

If you need to produce plastic cases or tablet cases of any material, Grandshine can provide you with professional production services and support OEM and ODM services. We have state-of-the-art facilities in China and Malaysia, as well as offices in the United States and the United Kingdom to make it easier to meet your needs. Please feel free to contact us for more information about plastic phone case production services. We look forward to working with you to create quality products.