Seamlessly waterproof mobile devices using nanoscale coating

4th June 2015

Europlasma

Barney Scott

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Datasheet

Europlasma has used Computex 2015 to present its growing family of innovative nanocoating solutions to waterproof electronic devices under the Nanofics brand name. Nanofics refers to nanoscaled functionalisation into the core of complex shaped materials and products. It is Europlasma’s patented and patent pending nanocoating technology platform, first applied on an industrial scale in 1996.

Manufacturers of electronic devices typically use the Nanofics 120 coating solutions to reach the highest levels of water repellency (water contact angle of 120° according to ASTM D5946) and oil repellency (oil repellency level 8 according to ISO 14419). Typical products that have the Nanofics 120 technology incorporated are earbuds, hearing aids, headsets, headphones, bluetooth speakers, smartwatches, smartphones and tablets.

There is a strong trend to move to more environmentally friendly solutions such as Nanofics 110 coatings, which are also highly water repellent (water contact angle of 110° according to ASTM D5946) and highly oil repellent (oil repellency level 6 according to ISO 14419) fluoropolymer nanocoatings, but are completely free from PFOA and PFOS.

Europlasma is leading the way to even more environmentally friendly solutions with the development of a family of water repellent nanocoatings which are completely free from halogens. Selected customers have started experimenting with these halogen-free coatings with very promising results. Europlasma works with each individual customer to find the optimal nanocoating solution for the device in question, reaching ingress protection levels from IPX2 to IPX7. Like no other Europlasma is able to implement this solution on industrial scale.

During Computex Europlasma will showcase an industrial setup of the CD1000 Nanofics, a plasma coating machine which is typically used in mass production of electronic devices such as smartphones, handling up to 500 devices per batch, 4m devices per year.

Kristof Hoornaert, Sales Account Manager, Europlasma, commented: “Some manufacturers use the technology to protect specific electronic components against for instance salt mist. Other manufacturers coat electronic subassemblies, or the whole device to achieve water ingress protection from levels IPX2 to IPX7. Europlasma has a complete range of plasma coating machines and chemistries to suit every manufacturer ’s needs.”