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Nowadays two display types are dominant in the display market: the bulky cathode ray tube (CRT) and liquid crystal displays (LCD). Both types use glass as substrate material. The LCD display is the dominant player for mobile applications, in for instance mobile phones and portable computers. In the development of displays and their applications a clear interest exists to replace the rigid rectangular display cells by free-shaped, curved or even roll-up cells. These types of applications require flexible displays.

The mechanical properties of polymers differ fundamentally in many respects from those of metals and much of this difference can be ascribed to the characteristic structures of these two classes of material. Most polymers consist of long molecular chains which are built up from a large number of single molecular units called mers. These molecular chains vary in length and hence the material has a range of molecular weights whose average can vary from a few hundred for a simple polymer up to about a million for those with very long chains. The chains are rarely straight, being typically coiled or tangled randomly; they may have side branches, and they can be built up from two or more basic mers to form copolymer chains. Polymers can be divided into two basic groups, the thermoplastics and the thermosetting resins, and their dissimilar mechanical properties are a reflection of their different structures.