The enterprise persevered and by careful polymer engineering, from first principles, it succeeded in its quest by developing what can be summarised chemically as a polyurethane-polyacrylate hybrid UV curable polymer structure. This yields a macroscopic materials performance that, is not dissimilar to the ease-of-processing and thermal cycling resistance offered by other established chemical coating material types such as the proprietary water-based ranges. One of the key benefits of the new UV material is its low viscosity. “This dramatically eases processing challenges in terms of being able to uniformly and quickly coat a board and ensure the coating spreads over all required areas,” says Kinner.
In addition, the UV material is also extremely flexible, physically, particularly in response to thermal cycling duress. “This means that the coating is far less prone to the conventional cracking that can occur with all traditional UV curables and which has afflicted them since their first introduction back in the 1980s.”
“In general UV curable coatings materials are more difficult to rework than, for instance, water-based alternatives,” adds Kinner. However, with HumiSeal UV40 HumiSeal Europe has managed to bring the performance of UV curable coatings to a level once thought impossible.” The company’s UV40 range has exceptionally low solvents, (less than 3 % content), that meet all ISO 14001 and major H & S/hazardous chemical regulatory requirements. One final benefit stems from the fact that UV curing ovens tend to be very compact. “This means they occupy far less factory floor space than the kind of equipment and machinery required to cure other types of coating material in a volume environment,” explains Kinner. “High and even medium volume users may also be attracted to this new UV range, simply as a way to reclaim factory floor space lost to the larger ovens and wave soldering baths demanded by the elevated processing temperatures of lead-free soldering.”
SMT, hall 7, booth 527, hall 8, booth 413 and 202
EPP Europe 426
