CONDUCTIVE ADHESIVES
Border Precision offers a range of conductive adhesives that lend themselves to a variety of RFI/EMC shielding and grounding applications. These fall into two basic groups, conductive flexible adhesives and structural conductive adhesives.
The range of flexible adhesives are primarily based on silicone elastomers and are most suitable for bonding materials that have differing thermal expansion rates.
A typical example of this type of requirement would be the bonding a RFI/EMC Shielded window into metal holder or panel mount. The adhesive secures the window in place and takes into consideration any shift due to the differing thermal expansion rates or flexing whilst maintaining a highly conductive electrical connection. Border Precisions’ flexible conductive adhesives are very resistant to vibration, shock and extreme changes in operating temperatures (thermal shock) continually providing superior environmental sealing.
- Single component – ready to use
- Room Temperature Vulcanising (RTV) - curing
- Neutral cure – no corrosive by-products or out-gassing when curing
- Safe for use with most substrates – will not tarnish or discolour
- Excellent ageing resistance
- Broad operating temperature range – remaining conductive and flexible at temperature extremes
- Stable - low bond (joint) resistance through temperature cycling
- Constructed from a wide range of conductive fillers to meet most electrical and environmental application specifications
Primary conductive fillers are listed below along with their key characteristics.
This is only intended as a guide since adhesives should be matched to each specific
needs of identified applications with respect to substrate and operating environments.
Guide of Primary conductive fillers are listed below along with their key characteristics.
- BPASC001 - Silver-plated copper - low bond resistance
- BPASN001 - Silver-plated nickel - temperature stable
- BPASA001- Silver-plated aluminium - galvanic compatibility with aluminium alloys
- BPANG001 - Nickel coated graphite - good when used with surfaces having comparatively high contact resistance e.g. die-cast zinc alloys & ‘yellow’ or chromate conversion finishes
- BPACS001 - Carbon - semi-conductive, ideally suited to Electro-Static Device (ESD) control
Typical Applications include:
- Vibration and shock resistant sealant and adhesive for electronic assemblies
- Electrical connection and bonding of materials with dissimilar thermal expansion rates
- RFI/EMC shielding with environmental sealing (IP68 levels of sealing possible)
- Grounding and ESD control from flexible conductive silicone adhesives
These adhesives provide high strength for permanent metal-to-metal bonds. They are ideally suited to the assembly of or prototyping of metallic enclosures avoiding the use of fasteners, welding or expensive machining operations
At present the standard adhesive available in this range is a silver loaded material with other optional fillers available shortly.
- Very high bond strength with high yield point
- Room Temperature Vulcanising (RTV) curing
- Compatible with most substrates – will not tarnish, no discolouring
- Excellent resistance to ageing
- Broad operating temperature range – remaining conductive and flexible at temperature extremes
- Stable - low bond (joint) resistance through temperature cycling
- Good gap filling properties – can be used to form fillet joints
Typical applications include:
- Structural adhesive – can be used to permanently bond metal assemblies, enclosures etc where other means are not suitable
- Ensures Anti-tamper bonding for use in critical assemblies
- Secure electrical connection of components, avoids using mechanical fixings
- RFI/EMC shielding with environmental sealing (IP68 levels of sealing possible)
- ESD control/grounding