Improvement of scratch resistance of plastic substrates for display screens by employment of low-modulus sublayer

Indentation, scratch and steel wool tests were performed on the hard coating surface of multilayered plastic substrate with a soft sublayer. There have been no studies on the effect of soft sublayers on the surface characteristics of plastic substrate. A series of three-layered film composed of a hard coating, plastic substrate and soft sublayer was prepared. In an effort to evaluate the properties of multilayered plastic substrate, including surface, mechanical properties and their resistance to scratches and wear, a comprehensive range of experiments was conducted. Some of the multilayered plastic substrates were found to have excellent scratch resistance while maintaining surface hardness. This is in contrast to many studies in which the improvement of the surface hard coating results in a detrimental effect on scratch resistance. The possibility of improving scratch resistance without scarifying the surface hardness may provide an excellent opportunity to make plastic-based cover screens for mobile devices.