“Why is it the case that a simple material like conformal coating causes problems time and time again for the engineers who are applying it?”
After all, a conformal coating is simply a paint without colour in its simplest form.
It should be really easy to use and provide great protection to the circuits it’s applied to.
Yet, time and time again engineers have problems applying conformal coating.
Well, from my experience of 25 plus years in conformal coating and circuit electronics reliability I have considered this and come up with many reasons.
They include a lack of understanding of what a conformal coating actually is and what it can do.
It can also be placing too high a demand on the material itself or the production process and the team operating the systems.
One clear point though always comes to mind to me when I see people having problems with conformal coating.
I could go as far as to say it probably is the number one cause of many process problems that I meet.
That point is that right at the beginning the engineers may not have considered the whole process of conformal coating material, application process and the actual circuit board design when they first decided to conformal coat.
Time and time again they failed to appreciate that successful conformal coating production is linked together by these three key factors: material, equipment and circuit board.
Consider them in isolation and it could lead to real problems in production with extra costs financially in many different ways.
After all, conformal coatings are there to be used to protect high reliability electronics products. Failures in the field could literally be devastating.
Why I wrote the conformal coating technical eBook
When writing this ebook my overall goal was to provide a complete instruction manual for all areas of conformal coating that was easy to understand.
Electronics manufacturing and conformal coating is a global business. The languages used in communications vary and English is certainly not always the first language. So, communicating clearly and in a correct manner is not always easy.
Therefore, I had in mind a conformal coating eBook that could be used as a reference guide and that could be used by the newcomer and experienced alike.
The eBook contains basic practical information for the new person to coating. It also provides technical information to those seeking help with the more complex areas of coating like process control and troubleshooting.
So, if nothing else is taken from this eBook then I hope the user will no longer consider selecting a coating or an application method in isolation.
They will use the Holistic Approach to conformal coating.
Dr Lee Hitchens