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High Temperature
Critical down-hole oil-and-gas exploration, aviation, and defense applications require high temperature film capacitors to work continuously and reliably at operating temperatures 200 °C and beyond.
Because of their inherent self-healing capabilities, certain high temperature plastic film base dielectrics (Teflon®, PTFE and Kapton®) provide important performance advantages in comparison to ceramic and tantalum capacitors.
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In addition to high temperatures, capacitors are also subjected to additional rigors in these extreme environments such as mechanical shocks, enhanced vibration frequencies, and high voltage environments.
Steinerfilm has deep expertise metallizing these and other high temperature materials.
Pulse Power
Low Energy
Medical defibrillators - Class III medical devices with the most stringent customer requirements - rely on Steinerfilm for absolute performance and reliability.
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Medical lasers are used in a variety of applications from cosmetic to general surgery. Lasers require the power supply to deliver high peak during pulse with a very low duty cycle - being able to quickly restore energy for the next pulse. Film capacitors are important to the power supply for power smoothing and require high reliability which is achieved through their self-healing capability.
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High Energy
Mission-critical pulse power applications such as the newest electromagnetic naval aircraft launch systems need pulse power capacitors with exceptionally high energy density and capability to discharge in microseconds – with unquestioned reliability.
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Steinerfilm has demonstrated expertise to metallize BOPP, PET, and new films under development for these critical applications. In particular, the US Military are pioneering advanced systems such as electromagnetic railguns, high-energy laser, and electromagnetic armor. Each one of these directed energy and electric weapons applications requires some form of pulsed power.
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Pulse power capacitors play a critical role in these essential systems and our team is very proud of our role helping to enable these cutting-edge technologies.
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Battery
Consortium member SVolt Energy has built NMC 811 cells demonstrating the enhanced safety of the Soteria aluminum metallized film current collector produced by Steinerfilm against control cells with standard aluminum foils.
Increasing adoption of electric vehicles, renewable energy, and proliferation of consumer electronics is driving Lithium-ion battery demand. However, traditional designs have well-known safety issues from thermal runaway. This can occur in Li-ion batteries when the internal temperature and pressure rises from an electrical short caused by manufacturing defects or from mechanical damage, which on many occasions have led to fire/explosion.
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Metallized plastic film to replace conventional metal-foil current collectors is an innovation patented by the Soteria Battery Innovation Group to address the safety challenges. This is very similar in concept to the self-healing capability of metallized-film capacitors. Using polymer film metallized on both sides with 500nm of metal isolates the active material caused by an internal short by vaporizing and isolating the short from the rest of the cell electrode. Soteria has successfully validated the concept by introducing Steinerfilm metallized film in actual products made by established Li-ion battery producers. It’s a drop-in replacement, and in addition to safety, it also offers weight, volume, and price reductions, critical to all Li-ion battery applications and growth. Steinerfilm is an active member of the Soteria industry consortium.
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Energy / Power
Wind farms, electric trains, and other renewable energy applications may be relatively new. yet Steinerfilm technology has been at the core of advanced drive electronics and energy applications for decades.
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For example, traction motors used in both high-speed and urban trains rely on energy-efficient traction motors driven by electronic inverters for smooth torque control. The control electronics consists of three basic sub-systems:
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a rectifier for the supply voltage
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a DC Link with a capacitor bank and inductors for energy storage and filtering
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a converter based on a variable frequency drive
The DC-Link capacitor must store enough energy to ensure that a stable voltage is supplied to the converter in all conditions and possible load currents. Film capacitors are the first choice for this task due to their intrinsic low ESR, high RMS current capabilities, overvoltage withstanding, and high reliability.
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Fast switching semiconductors generate ripple currents with high energies and frequencies. Resonant filters using low inductive film capacitors keep this harmful noise away from motor coils and supply networks.
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Film capacitors built on Steinerfilm products are the first choice for every power supply which requires a set of capacitors dedicated to power conversion, filtering EMI clearing, and feedback loops.
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Flexible Electronics / RFID
BioSensors, Smart labels, and the Internet of Things (IIoT) are behind the growing demand for precision flexible hybrid electronics and RFID tags & antennas. Steinerfilm's sophisticated vacuum web coating technology is ideal for coating mile-long polymer webs with metals and polymer-like layers of the highest quality in precise repeating patterns.
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Nearly any kind of structure that is required for flexible or large area electronics can be produced commercially by Steinerfilm's inline masking process.
Very fine structured layers can be deposited according to customized specifications with excellent edge definition providing superior performance.
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Speciality Applications
If you can dream it, Steinerfilm can make it. We enable your innovations.
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Our decades of experience of metallizing polymer films for high-performance applications are well-suited for novel uses of thermal insulation, environmental barriers, and similar functions.
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Metallized films are ideal for packaging and protecting medical devices. They provide excellent environmental barriers to contaminants such as light, oxygen, and other impurities.
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Aerospace applications, both in spacecraft and terrestrial uses, place a premium on weight and long-life. Steinerfilm’s expertise mating resilient base films with a well-adhered metal layer(s) create very lightweight and durable insulation materials.
