Developer interviews
How we develop hard coat films that achieve a writing feel like paper despite being film
Hard coat films that improve the writing feel of tablets for educational use
Q. What kind of product is a hard coated film for improved writing feel?
And what applications are this kind of films used for?
The introduction of tablets, used with a touch pen to write on the screen, has been progressing in educational institutions such as elementary and junior high schools in recent years. But if the surface of the tablet screen is slippery, that makes it difficult to write certain things, like the endings and upturns that are peculiar to kanji characters.
We have developed hard coated films that have fine irregularities on the film surface, to produce the same feeling as writing with pencil on paper. Using that film on a tablet screen produces the ideal pen-writing feel.
Q. What kind of performance is needed from hard coated films for improved writing feel, and how did you achieve that ideal feel?
First we focused on the resistance and vibration that occur when writing with a pencil on paper. Then we performed numerical analysis of coefficient of friction, amplitude, frequency, and other parameters, and our researchers deliberated together to examine what kind of film would produce the ideal tactile writing-feel.
Q. What are Lintec’s strengths in terms of hard coated films for improved writing feel?
We at Lintec can develop films with optimum functions by combining the various hard coating technologies which we have accumulated through long experience in the display industry and elsewhere.
Q. What have you struggled with in your product development work?
Optical films must provide particularly high performance in the area of image quality. For example, just when we thought we were close to the ideal writing-feel, we found that it made the screen cloudy. Another problem was that pen tips tended to wear down more quickly. It was tough to solve all the many performance requirements simultaneously.
Q. What upcoming challenges and developments are you working on in the field of hard coated films for improved writing feel?
Customers have wide-ranging demands for hard coated films for improved writing feel, including diversified pen tip materials and pen-feel preferences. In the future we want to continue making the writing-feel of our films as close as possible to the feel of writing with a pencil, ballpoint pen, or other writing instrument on paper.
Also, awareness of hygiene in everyday life has been rising lately, so we are considering products that meet related market needs, such as adding antibacterial and antiviral performance.
Functional hard coated film HA series (with adhesive)
Achivement
Functional hard coated film HA series (with adhesive)
Our hard coated films with excellent writing feel have been adopted in educational tablets
In recent years, tablets allowing characters to be written on a screen with a touch pen have been introduced for learning to write kanji (Chinese characters) in elementary schools.
However, it was difficult to write kanji on a conventional smooth screen due to the stops and hooks that are particular to kanji characters.
LINTEC has developed a hard coated film with fine irregularities so as to achieve almost the same feeling as writing on paper with a pencil.
Adopted in Fujitsu’s tablets, it helped achieve an ideal writing feel for learning kanji. In the future, we will continue our research and development with the aim of further improving the performance.