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Does your conformal coating not wet properly? Do you struggle with craters, fish-eyes, or film separation? The culprit could be that the surface energy of your PCB is lower than the surface tension of the conformal coating.   The above defects are discussed frequently with customers on our technical support line, and any time we receive a technical enquiry regarding poor wetting or loss of adhesion, we ask “what is the surface energy of your substrate?” In this blog, we will explain surface energy, surface tension, and how to quickly troubleshoot defects resulting from low surface energy.

Have you ever wondered if you can use the same material to pot or conformaly coat your electronics?  HumiSeal has launched a new fast curing, two-part silicone (Humiseal 2C51) that can be easily applied as a conformal coating or as a potting material.  This option allows users to standardize on one product for multiple applications.

Humiseal 2C51 is a high solids, low viscosity, fast curing product.  Humiseal 2C51 comes as a two-part kit.   Part A and part B are mixed with a 1:1 ratio to either encapsulate or conformally coat your electronics.  Part A and B are yellow and blue for easy verification of complete mix which is slightly turquoise.   When cured, 2C51 is trasparent even in high thicknesses.  Humiseal 2C51 is primarily used in high temperature applications where component stress relief is required.

During your selection of conformal coating you ran in to a specification that you have seen before but not fully understood, MIL-I-46058C.   Conformal coating choices are vast, but with so many available, how does a user pick the correct one? Are there minimum standards that define what a conformal coating is supposed to do? Thankfully, yes there are. This article will focus on one such standard: MIL-I-46058C.

The official title for the specification is MIL-I-46058C, Insulating Compound (For Coating Printed Circuit Assemblies). The standard serves as a material standard, used to evaluate and document that a particular coating meets a list of specific performance attributes (more on those later). The MIL-I-46058C was developed to define a uniform set of test methods and performance requirements for conformal coatings and gives users confidence that the material they select will perform.

Your conformal coating film is supposed to be clear and transparent, but it’s cloudy-white and dull…it’s BLUSHING.  This condition is an indication that your coating film is trying to tell you something, and it isn’t that it’s embarrassed.  This blog will help you better understand why your conformal coating film is blushing from acquired moisture contamination and help you eliminate this defect.

Coatings appear cloudy because they have inadvertently acquired moisture, either due to their hygroscopic nature or by artificial means (a cooling mechanism created by solvent evaporation), which then reacts negatively with the coating resin -  exhibiting itself as a milky, colloidal-type substance.  Many different types of conformal coating chemistries can be sensitive to blushing under certain circumstances.  These circumstances are usually related to specific ambient conditions, application, cure, condition of the assembly/substrate/associated components, storage environment and/or equipment under use.

"Have you ever experienced air entrapment in your conformal coating?  We would like to offer some assistance to help you to get rid of those exasperating bubbles in the conformal coating process.

Contrary to what most people think bubbles are not material related, bubbles are mostly caused by process related issues.  Yes, it is true that the conformal coating contents would influence in having more or less bubbles.  Solvents will definitively generate bubbles if the process is not properly set but that is not all!  You have to think about  several other factors that could negatively affect the result of your coating application in regards of bubbles.

So, we will talk about not one, but three clever techniques to reduce and/or get rid of the bubbles.

UV curing of conformal coatings can appear to be a complicated topic, however, a few simple steps will help to correctly set up your production process.   The main difference between UV curable coatings the traditional cure mechanisms is the utilization of UV energy to effect the change from a liquid to a solid. After this rapid UV curing step the coating is tack-free and the PCB can continue its production journey negating any requirement for long curing, post-bakes etc.

HumiSeal®, a leading manufacturer and distributor of conformal coatings has announced that it will use the Productronica India 2016 event in Bangalore, 21^st – 23^rd September 2016, as a platform to showcase its extensive range of conformal coatings as well as to solidify its recent expansion into India following the announcement of its sales, support and manufacturing facility in Pune. Visitors to the HumiSeal stand (3251) will be able to hear first-hand just how far conformal coatings have come as HumiSeal continues to set the benchmark in conformal coatings.

HumiSeal®, a leading conformal coating manufacturer, has gained further recognition for its commitment to quality by acheiving ISO/TS 16949 certifictation. ISO/TS 16949 is the global technical specification and quality management standard for the automotive industry. The certification follows significant investment and several months of implementing further quality assurance protocols across the company’s manufacturing and distribution operations.

HumiSeal®, a leading conformal coating manufacturer announced that BMW has approved UV500 for their Qualified Products List (QPL) following testing to the BMW GS-95011 test standard. Designed for high reliability applications, UV500 is the latest product addition to HumiSeal’s UV cure range of conformal coatings and is available globally from HumiSeal or through our authorized channel partners.  

HumiSeal®, a leading conformal coating manufacturer, has announced the appointment of Bálint Győrffy as Technical Sales Engineer to further strengthen support to major customers throughout Eastern Europe. With an established background in the SMT industry, Bálint will be responsible for providing commercial and technical support to key customers and distributors in the area.