OEM: Siemens, Deutschland, München Supplier: Siemens, Deutschland, München Year: 2008 Industry sector: Panels and housings for mobile phones and standard phones

Part design:

As with previous models, Siemens once again turned to the Bayfol® DF-A ABS film to decorate the phone housings and base stations of its Gigaset S450 and S455 cordless phones. The use of film insert molding (FIM) dispensed with the time-consuming coating process for these parts. As requested by Siemens, the Bayfol® DF-A film was produced in a special shade of silver. ALBEA Kunststofftechnik GmbH applied a matte coating to the front of the film using rotary screen printing and the film was then thermoformed and punched. The resultant preforms were back-injected at Siemens in Bocholt. Once decorated, the plastic parts could go straight into the production chain for further processing because the plastic processing and final assembly stages were closely linked. Using the ABS film had huge economic and logistical benefits – including a much lower reject rate at the coating stage.