New Cyclo Olefin Polymer Developed to Increase Production, Popularity of Blue Laser Equiptment

Newly available from Zeon Chemicals, a transparent, thermoplastic resin may dramatically reduce the time and cost of producing high-performance optical lenses for Blu-ray® equipment. Switching to the new ZEONEX® 350R cyclo olefin polymer (COP) will allow manufacturers to injection-mold high-performance, plastic optical lenses offering the same precision once achieved only with conventional glass.

Designed specifically for the manufacture of optical pickup lenses in discs using blue-violet semiconductor lasers, ZEONEX 350R minimizes fluctuations in light penetration ratio during prolonged irradiation tests with stronger blue lasers. While Zeon Chemicals had already achieved Blu-ray compatibility with ZEONEX 340R introduced in 2004, the new grade ZEONEX 350R provides a variety of production benefits by allowing faster, cost-effective injection molding of superior-quality lenses. "Reducing manufacturers’ production time and expense is an important step to making Blu-ray equipment more attractive to consumers," says Brian Cail of Zeon Chemicals. "ZEONEX 350 R allows affordable, mass-production of plastic lenses with the same properties of glass."

Zeon Chemicals and parent company ZEON Corporation of Japan are continually developing new materials designed to meet the increasing demand for products used in optical applications including camera-enabled cell phones, digital cameras and DVDs, as well as LCD optical films and diffusion plates.