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What are conformal coating masking boots and how can they save you money?

Blog, masking boots

The use of masking materials such as tapes, dots and liquid latex can be a highly effective process in protecting components from ingress of conformal coating.

However, the masking process can be labour intensive, difficult and time consuming.

Using reusable, custom masking boots offers a labour saving alternative in both the masking and de-masking stages of the coating process.

This can save you lots of time and money.

masking boots

Three simple reasons why conformal coating masking boots can save you money

  • Masking time is reduced. Using masking boots as an alternative can be 4-5 times quicker than masking tape.
  • De-masking time is reduced. Again it is much quicker to remove masking boots than tape
  • Masking boots don’t leak as easily as tape. So there is less chance of a need to repair or remove leaked coating.

This means you can save a lot of money very quickly when switching to custom masking boots.

How Diamond MT saved nearly 60% of their process time switching to masking boots

Diamond MT, a conformal coating and Parylene coating service provider, found they saved 60% of their current costs by switching to the SCH range of conformal coating masking boots.

Sean Horn, Diamond MT, explains how they did it.

“We had initially wanted to try SCH’s conformal coating masking boots for price savings. However, once we began to work with Lee on our specific masking application, we realised that we could extend the life of our boots over 200%. We switched immediately!

We then realised the importance of working with someone who understands conformal coatings. We will not being going back to our previous supplier.”

Sean Horn, Director, Diamond MT, Parylene and conformal coating subcontract service provider.

Find out how much you can save by switching to custom boots

We are happy to provide a quotation for our masking boots so you can see for yourself how much you can save.

Just provide us with three pieces of information:

  • Provide a picture of the board you wish to test
  • Identify the components you need to mask
  • Provide the component identification codes (manufacture details etc)

Contact us now to request your quotation for conformal coating masking boots.

Call us on +44 (0) 1226 249019, email your requirements on sales@schservices.com

What is Plasma coating?

Blog, Plasma, Plasma coating

Plasma treatment of the surface of a circuit board before conformal coating

Plasma coating is the application of a nano-coating material onto a surface via a plasma.

Using a jet nozzle the material is supplied to the plasma. Next, the plasma excites the material and this increases the coatings reactivity.

This extra reactivity allows the material to optimally cover the surface of the substrate and bond much tighter.

The plasma coating process can be adjusted individually to the substrate. It can be used to coat different materials like metals, glass, ceramics and plastics.

These nano coatings can be made to be hydrophobic (water repellent) and hydrophillic (water absorbant) depending on your requirements.

Examples of plasma coating applications include:

  • Improvement of barrier characteristics of plastics for packaging
  • Improved paint application with long-term stability and resulting high flexibility in manufacturing
  • PT Release coatings, for injection molding tools, allow a high number of process cycles without the components having to be stressed with release agents that contain silicone.
  • PT Bond coatings assuring long-term adhesion in the adhesive joint.
  • Corrosion protection coatings that offer extremely high corrosion protection with long term resistance to corrosive electrolytes (especially for aluminum alloys) because of their good barrier effect

 

Want to know more about plasma coating and protecting your products?

Contact us

Call us on +44 (0) 1226 249019, email your requirements on sales@schservices.com

The ABCs of plasma cleaning for conformal coating

Blog, Plasma cleaning

The ABCs of plasma cleaning for conformal coating

Plasma cleaning is a process that is gaining more popularity in thin film applications due its highly effective performance on cleaning and modifying surfaces.

It is also a highly effective surface cleaning and treatment process before application of conformal coatings.

Plasma circuit treatment of circuit board narrow

What is Plasma?

Plasma is an energy-rich gas state that can be used to modify the surface of a product to improve its performance. This modification can be improving the adhesion of a conformal coating or changing the surface characteristics.

Plasma technology is based on a simple physical principle.

Matter changes its state when energy is supplied to it. Solids become liquid. Liquids become gas.

If additional energy is then fed into a gas by means of electrical discharge it eventually ionises and goes into the energy-rich plasma state, the fourth state of matter.

Plasma is created.

How can Plasma be used for cleaning printed circuit boards?

 

Plasma treatment can clean, activate or coat nearly all surfaces. These surfaces include plastics, metals, (e.g., aluminum), glass, recycled materials and composite materials. This means the plasma process can be highly effective on many different products.

For electronic circuit surfaces, plasma treatment can be used in two highly effective ways.

That is it can:

  1. Clean the surface of the circuit board to be 100% contamination free. The surface will be free of residues and contamination including release agents and additives.
  2. Activate the surface of the circuit board assembly to allow easier bonding and better adhesion of conformal coatings. It can change the surface energy of the surface to ensure complete adhesion is possible and in some cases it can make materials bond where it was previously impossible.
  3. These properties make it an interesting technique for improving the surface performance of an electronic circuit board.

What are the typical plasma processes available for surface treatment?

There are traditionally three types of plasma treatment:

  1. Low-pressure plasma
  2. Corona treatment
  3. Atmospheric pressure plasma

Low-pressure plasma

These plasmas are generated in closed chambers in a vacuum (10-3 to 10-9 bar).

They can be used in conjunction with Chemical Vapor Deposition (CVD) coatings like Parylene before application.

Corona treatment

Corona treatment (corona process) is a physical process involving high voltage and is mainly used for treatment of films.

This is normally not suitable for electronic circuit boards.

Atmospheric pressure plasma

Atmospheric plasma is generated under normal pressure. This means that low-pressure chambers are not required.

The plasma is created with clean/dry compressed air (plant air) and does not require forming gases. It is possible to integrate plasma directly into manufacturing processes under normal pressure conditions.

This is an excellent process for improving adhesion and surface energy performance of circuit boards for conformal coatings.

How is the plasma applied to a circuit board to clean it?

Typical plasma components used for cleaning surfaces on circuits are:

  • Plasma jets (nozzles) to apply the plasma to the surface of the circuit board. They could be controlled by a robotic system.
  • The plasma generators that create the plasma to clean or supply the coatings as required. They provide output power and, in conjunction with complete pretreatment stations, assume various control functions.
  • The process monitoring that controls the nozzles, the movement of the system and the quality of the output.
  • These three parts form the plasma cleaning process.

What sectors is plasma treatment used?

different technologies that have been plasma cleaned or treated

There are many sectors that plasma cleaning is used for improving conformal coating performance.

They include:

  • Automotive
  • Telecommunications
  • Mobile phone and Tablets
  • Aerospace
  • Military
  • Transport
  • Consumer goods
  • Life sciences
  • LED Coating

Want to know more about plasma cleaning and conformal coating performance?

Contact us

Call us on +44 (0) 1226 249019, email your requirements on sales@schservices.com.

 

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Conformal Coating UK

Conformal Coating UK
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