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Bridges: It’s much higher than we would expect. It’s solvent free, and the whole idea of 2K coatings is that you have more protection in a harsher environment. So, the coating thicknesses will be anywhere from 150–300 microns, and more if you want. You're not restricted by removing any solvent from the system, and you also have a very flexible polyurethane matrix that you can work with, which enables you to have a higher thickness while still pass thermal shock tests.
Starkey: You mentioned harsh environments. What sort of harsh environments and industry sectors?
Bridges: To be honest, everything. Again, automotive is usually the one that leads the way for everybody else. They keep increasing their standards, which makes everybody else ask, “Is this right for our industry?” The 2K coatings allow you to bridge the gap between a coating and a resin. If you have some immersion or a chance of water sitting on the board for a period of time, if that was to be happening regularly with a normal conformal coating, you'd be concerned about the lifetime of that coating. The 2K product allows much more condensation to land on the board. It also allows sequential testing. Usually when going from thermal shock into humidity testing, if you have thermal shock and you get any cracking—even if it’s just microcracking and something you can't really see—and you put it into a humid or salt-mist environment, it will fail. This combination testing is something else that a few industries are looking at because that's the reality of life. All of these things come together.
Starkey: Jade, you've given us some great information and explained a lot of things people will find very interesting. Thank you very much indeed.
Bridges: Thank you.
Jade Bridges is global technical support manager at Electrolube. To read past columns from Electrolube, click here.
To download your copy of Electrolube's micro eBook, The Printed Circuit Assembler's Guide to… Conformal Coatings for Harsh Environments, click here.
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