Design rules for conformal coating & Parylene
Authors and contributors
- Dr Lee Hitchens, Nexus
- Karl Hardcastle, SCH Technologies
These design rules and guidelines could save you money, time and heartache.
Nexus have split the conformal coating design rules into sections.
These are:
Each have overlapping rules and guidelines that also can be very specific to the application process.
Why it all can go wrong in the design stage
Most companies have successfully adopted Design for Manufacture (DFM) principles.
They have increased the level of communication between design teams and those required to manufacture the product, to eliminate or reduce the number and variety of production challenges.
However, this is not always the case.
Conformal coating is not simply a consumable material
Unfortunately, for too many designers, conformal coating is simply a part number, to be applied to circuit boards.
For companies embracing lean philosophies and applying coatings, this failure to appreciate the subtleties of the application process can result in an un-coatable (at least as specified) assembly process.
The design rules for conformal coating are straightforward.
Follow them and you can save money and time in your application process.
However, if the rules are not followed, the resultant circuit board design can challenge even the most sophisticated conformal coating system and its operator to achieve the finish desired.
Every company has its own horror stories and folk lore about the challenges faced when conformal coating an assembly to successfully meet the designer’s specification.
It is almost certain that the majority of these ‘nightmare’ scenarios could have been headed off during the design and or prototyping stages of development.
Design rule PDF downloads