The U.S. market for high-performance films was valued at US$12.4 bln in 2011, and is projected to reach US$14.9 bln in 2017, a five-year compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 3.7% from 2012 to 2017, as per BCC Research. The commodity films segment is expected to increase in value from US$10.1 bln in 2012 to US$11.7 bln in 2017, a CAGR of 3%. The high-performance films segment is expected to increase in value from US$2.3 bln in 2012 to US$3.2 bln in 2017, a CAGR of 6.8%.
High-performance thermoplastic (TP) films are playing an increasingly important role as engineers design products in increasingly demanding environments. Historically, the most important applications were for photographic and reprographic applications. Today, these films may make possible safer and lighter packaging, economic electric vehicles, better liquid crystal displays (LCDs) and the growth of an economically practical photovoltaic (PV) industry. Major companies such as DuPont, Solvay and 3M are important technology drivers and invest significant capital in R&D to improve the technology. Innovations were driven initially by chemistry. Increasingly, they are driven by improved fabrication and treatment of films. One example is the incredibly complex development of specialty polyolefin films as membrane separators for lithium-ion batteries. Engineers define films in different ways, but generally they have thicknesses ranging from 0.001 inches to 0.300 inches. Some markets define films slightly differently. Thicknesses above 0.20 inches (20 mils) may be defined as sheet by some. Thicknesses up to 0.40 inches (40 mils) may be defined as film by some engineers. As explained in this report, minimum film thicknesses are trending toward micro as exciting technologies emerge. Many high-temperature films are in the range of 0.001 inches to 0.010 inches. A word on film thickness units: both English and metric units commonly are used. U.S. film thickness is expressed in gauge. In film technology, gauge is a measurement where one gauge unit equals 0.01 mil or about 0.25 micron. Perhaps the easiest way to remember the relationship between these unit systems is that 100-gauge film is 1 mil or 25 microns thick. For this report, film gauge will be referred to in the manner that is the standard in the industry under discussion.

MARKET FOR HIGH-PERFORMANCE FILMS, 2010-2017 (US$ BILLIONS)