Questions regarding the chemical susceptibility of the LINQSTAT film have prompted us to answer them publicly. On the datasheet of the LINQSTAT VCF-Series Film, the chemical susceptibility of the product is listed. The questions that arose (and the answers below) are the following:

Q1. What does it mean that the LINQSTAT VCF film is unaffected by age and humidity?

A1. This means that regardless of the humidity (up to 100% RH) and over the entire life of the product, there is no change in the volume conductivity of the black tape. This is a property of the tape itself. This means that even submerged underwater, the product maintains its conductivity.

Q2. What does it mean that there is “slow-attack” from Ketones?

A2. Ketones are chemical solvents, namely Acetone and MEK. This means that with constant contact (ie. submerged) there is a degradation of the material over time. This product is not suitable for continuous contact with acetone (ketones).

Q3. What does it mean that there is a “slow-attack” from Alkalines?

A3. An alkaline is a basic product (with pH greater than 7) and is the opposite of an acid (pH less than 7). A “weak” alkaline means the pH is not very far from 7 (ie. 7.2, 7.4) Stronger basic solutions would be higher than this from 7. With direct contact with alkalines, there is an attack of the plastic.

Any many applications, such as the use as an interleaver for smartcards or for the packaging of electronics goods, neither of these points is an issue.

Visit the product page of Linqstat (Velostat Alternative) for technical datasheets, pricelists and more.

As described in the article “What is the right application for Carnauba Wax Aerosol Spray?, carnauba wax is described as a natural wax used as a mold release agent for epoxy mold compounds. The article also outlines that carnauba wax in its solid form is also used as a raw material in the manufacturing of epoxy mold compounds.

What is the compostion of Epoxy Molding Compounds?

There is only a very small percentage of carnauba wax used in the manufacture of epoxy mold compounds used for integrated circuit (IC) and passive device manufacturer. By far, the largest composition of epoxy mold compound by weight is the filler, which accounts for somewhere between 60-90% of the composition.

After this, the epoxy resin and the hardner complete the bulk of the composition accounting for another 15-40%. Finally, catalysts, pigments, flame retardants, low-stress absorbers, adhesion promoters, catalysts, coupling agents and release agents combined making up less than 10% of the total composition. Of this, carnauba wax consists of less than 0.5% of the raw ingredients by weight and its primary function is mold release. To recap, the raw materials, listed in decreasing order of weight % used are:

1. Filler
2. Epoxy Resin
3. Hardner
4. Flame retardants
5. Stress Absorbers
6. Adhesion Promoters
7. Catalyst
8. Pigment
9. Coupling Agent
10. Carnauba Wax used for Mold release

Each of these raw materials has specific functions within the whole of the epoxy molding compound.

Function of Carnauba Wax Mold Release

Carnauba Wax within the Epoxy Mold Compound has two main functions:

• Acting as a flow promoter within the compound itself
• Providing a mold release for the epoxy mold compound in the mold cavity and chase

In an ideal situation, no additional mold release would be required, but as explained in What is the right application for Carnauba Wax Aerosol Spray? there are simply two many non-ideal situations which necessitate additional Carnauba Wax Aerosol Spray. To understand a little more, let’s take a look at how the carnauba wax functions as a mold release agent.

How Carnauba Wax Works as a Mold Release Agent

As can be seen in the first schematic (click on it for larger view), before molding, the carnauba wax , represented by the shark-tooth shaped lines are randomly distributed within the epoxy mold compound matrix.

In the second schematic (again, click on it for larger view), you can see that the carnauba wax when heated escapes to the outside of the matrix, allowing the epoxy mold compound to release from the mold chase inside.

CAPLINQ offers a variety of Carnauba Wax Mold Release Aerosol Sprays. Visit CAPLINQ.com today or ask us how we can help you select the right tape for your application.

These days, the answer to that question is pretty easy. With the sinking of the US dollar and the strength of the Euro, businesses all over the world are scrambling to do business with American companies. The downside for European companies trying to get in on the action is that shipping costs from the USA generally negate any adding savings of buying in US dollars.

Buy in Europe, Pay in US Dollars

For American companies, who are used to paying in US Dollars, the service CAPLINQ offers isn’t particularly valuable. For European customers however, this is a real windfall. These customers can now negotiate and buy consumable materials for use in Europe and pay in USD - truly the best of both worlds.

How can CAPLINQ do this?
CAPLINQ is not a publicly traded company with shareholders needing to be pleased. We control our own costs and negotiate ourselves as much as we can in US Dollars so that we don’t speculate on currency fluctuations. Sure, we have costs in Euros, but not nearly as much fixed overhead as the big guys and because we have locations on both sides of the Atlantic and can shift resources to best utilize our US Dollar prices.

How else can CAPLINQ offer such low prices?
One of the most obvious ways we control costs is through our marketing and sales budgets.We do have sales people that travel to customer sites when necessary, the operative word here being necessary. Our customers work smarter today than at any other time in history; surfing the web, reading blogs, participating in forums and chatting live with potential suppliers.

CAPLINQ embraces this and uses it to reduce costs. We post blogs that customers read instead mailing newsletters that collect in a pile. We provide live updates and news on our products instead of 10,000 copies of a catalog that sits on customers’ shelves. We have live chat boxes so customers get timely answers to their questions, and we add more and more data to our product pages as questions are asked and answers provided.

We strive to put price tags on as many products as we can, so you can comparative shop and come back to us. If you do find prices better than ours, let us know and we’ll try to beat them.

So visit us today as www.caplinq.com and experience the CAPLINQ difference.

As described in the article “How Polyimide Tapes are Made“, tapes are composed of two distinct layers, each of which is critical to the properties of the final product. The first layer is the backing material, and whether this is polyimide film (the generic verison of DuPont’s Kapton), polyvinyl chloride (PVC), Polyethylene terephthalate (PET), or some other plastic, cloth or paper material, this layer is selected to provide half of the tape’s final properties. The other half is determined by the adhesive layer applied to this backing layer.

The Usual Suspects

Generally speaking, manufacturers use three different adhesive types in combination with the backing material to produce a final “tape” product. Though these adhesive types can be subdivided into subgroups, the main categories are as follows:

1. Silicone
2. Acrylic
3. Rubber

Each of these adhesive types have advantages and disadvantages which make them more or less suitable for particular applications. Here we will draw the major lines outlining these differences.

Silicone adhesives

Silicones have been used to formulate adhesive products for decades due to their flexibility, temperature cycling resistance, chemical resistance, and wide range of possible material properties.

Silicone adhesives have the following general characteristics:

• High flexibility (low modulus) at sub-ambient temperature
• Consistent performance over wide temperature range (a reason they work so well with Polyimide Tapes)
• Excellent ageing and UV resistance (a reason they work so well in LED applications)
• High temperature resistance
• Good resistance to polar solvents

Compared to acrylic and rubber adhesives, they are significantly more expensive, but due to their excellent high temperature performance they are very well suited to splicing tapes, masking tapes and polyimide (Kapton) tapes.

Acrylic Adhesives

Acrylic adhesives can either be water-based (this is also referred to as emulsion or dispersion) or solvent-based. Water-based are slower drying compared to solvent-based systems but generally solvent-based acrylic systems have better resistance to other solvents, chemicals and water. Comparatively, water-based systems are less expensive than their solvent-based counter parts.

Acrylic adhesives are generally divided into two subgroups: Pure and Modified

Pure acrylic
Pure acrylic adhesives share the following characteristics:

• Reasonable adhesion to a wide range of substrates (see modified acrylics below)
• Good ageing, transmittance and UV resistance (a reason they are often used in fiberoptic applications
• Reasonable temperature resistance; between silicones (high resistance) and rubber (low resistance)

Pure acrylics have a lower tack (”stickyness when dry” for the layman) and less adhesion on hard-to-bond plastics such as high- and low-density polyethylene (HDPE & LDPE) and polypropylene (PP) than modified acrylic or rubber adhesives. Pure acrylic adhesives are mainly used on tapes whose applications are bonding, sealing or surface protection.

Modified acrylic
For all intents and purposes, modified acrylics have the same characteristics as pure acrylics, but have superior adhesion to the hard-to-bond-plastics mentioned above. Generally, these are more expensive than pure acrylics and are used for plastic bonding (including vinyl and linoleum), lamination and splicing.

Rubber Adhesives

Just from looking at the roll, it is very hard to tell what type of rubber is used on the tape. Look at the figure to the right, and this same picture can be used to describe every type of rubber-tape below. The key is to ask the supplier what type of rubber adhesive is used. Like acrylics, rubber adhesives can be divided into two subgroups: Natural and Synthetic

Natural rubber
These adhesive have higher tack (again “stickyness when dry” for the layman) than acrylic adhesives as well as higher shear strength but they have limited UV resistance. These are used in the cheapest tapes on the market, but have limited applications. Natural rubber adhesives are used in duct tapes, low-temperature masking tapes and surface protection tapes (think of the tape you get on your new fridge or stove).

Synthetic rubber
As the name implies, synthetic rubber is “formulated rubber” - think coming from the lab, not coming from the tree. Synthetic rubber can broken into three subgroups: Hot-melt, Solvent and Butyl rubber.

Hot-melt rubber

Hot-melt is a low-temperature melting plastic, which makes this adhesive have low temperature resistance. It also ages poorly (becoming brittle) and has low UV resistance. This rubber is used for low- to medium-duty carton sealing, low-temperature splicing as well as paper core starting applications.

Solvent rubber

Solvent-rubber based adhesives have better temperature and aging performance but still poor UV resistance. It is used for electrical and foam tapes.

Butyl rubber

Butyl rubber based tapes have excellent UV and aging resistance but lower mechanical strength. These tapes are used in foam tape applications and construction and plumbing applications such as pipe joints.

Visit CAPLINQ.com today or ask us how we can help you select the right tape for your application.
tapes are mainly used for sealing applications in the building and construction industry. T

Have you ever wondered how you can best and most affordably EMF (electro-magnetic field) shield a room in your house? With LINQSTAT VCF (Volume Conductive Film) of course.

A direct equivalent to 3M Velostat (read the article on generic brands here), Linqstat VCF is a very low cost (up to 50% cheaper than 3M Velostat), volume conductive film for EMF shielding.

What’s the difference between volume conductive and just conductive?

Like it’s 3M Velostat equivalent, LINQSTAT VCF is a carbon impregnated [...]

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Shin-Etsu offer a range of silicone materials suitable for optical fiber coating. The fiber coating application can be broken down into two categories, the “primary coating” through which the light or data must pass and the “buffer coating” whose optical properties must be different than the primary coating.

Shin-Etsu offer a range of silicone materials suitable for optical fiber coating.

Depending on the equipment and method of polymerization (UV Cure of Heat Cure), different categories of products are available. Refer to the figure below.

Primary Coating Material

For the primary coating, there is one heat-cure product (OF-182), and two UV-cure products (OF-211 and OF-212). These products exhibit specific optical properties as the light (data) travels through this layer. For these applications a refractive index of 1.49 - 1.52 is required and all these products have refractive indices that fall in this range.

Buffer Coating Material

The buffer coating material is used to keep the light (data) within the fiber core and thus requires a material with a much lower refractive index, typically in the 1.41 - 1.44 range. For this application, there are two heat cure products (OF-101 and OF-180) and two UV-cure products (OF-207 and OF-208).

These materials are suitable for normal telecon fibers coated with 400µm - 500µm thicknesses at line speeds of 100 to 500 m/min.

Contact us or visit us at www.caplinq.com today for more information on these or other products.

People in the know, know that Carnauba Wax is an excellent mold release product as well as useful from many other applications. Historically, manufacturers have used Carnauba Wax extensively in semiconductor applications in solid form to get molding equipment back into service after it has been taken out, or rub along the plunger when epoxy mold compound (EMC) sticks and causes it to seize.

MJ Gordon #909C puts the wonders of carnauba wax into the simplicity of a spray.

For some reason though, not everyone has discovered MJ Gordon Carnauba Wax Aerosol Spray. This product does what every manufacturer was asking for, to put the wonders of carnauba wax into a can so it could be sprayed. MJ Gordon #909C Carnauba Wax is a non-flammable, RoHS-compliant, solvent-based aerosol spray that puts the wonders of carnauba wax into the simplicity of a spray.

Contact us or visit us at www.caplinq.com today for more information on these or other products.

Polyimide Tape (the generic version of Dupont© Kapton Tape), typically comes in various polyimide thicknesses. These thicknesses are generally labelled as 1-mil, 2-mil, 3-mil or even 5-mil thick polyimide tape. Each of these variations serves different purposes and is therefore used for different applications. Of course, the thicker the polyimide film used, the more expensive the tape too.

Each layer has a thickness and the sum of these thicknesses makes up the total tape thickness.

What is often misunderstood by customers is what exactly “1-mil thick” polyimide tape implies. Customers are not sure whether “1-mil” (25µm) thick polyimide tape refers to the polyimide film thickness or [...]

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This article addresses the common question of the Packaging Weights and Package Dimensions of the LINQSTAT Volume Conductive Film (VCF). This product is CAPLINQ’s equivalent product to 3M Velostat* material.

The packaging dimensions are made up of two specific components, the width of the rolls and the length of the rolls. Typically, if roll widths are longer than 36″ (91.4 cm), the width is folded on top of itself into what is know as a V-Sheet. For example, a 72″ (182.4 cm) roll is too wide to be sent as is, and so it is folded on top of itself before being rolled, giving a width of 36″ (91.4 cm). The length of the width will determine the outer circumference of the roll once added to the core roll diameter.

The packing weights are made up of 3 components:

1. The specific gravity (SG) of the material
2. The roll core weight and
3. The shipping pallet weight

Specific gravity
The specific gravity of CAPLINQ’s Linqstat material is 1.08g/cc. This means that a roll that is 72″ (182.4 cm) wide by 150′ (4572 cm) long by 0.004″ (0.01016 cm) thick will have a weight of 20.3 lbs as shown below:
(182.4 cm) x (4572 cm) x (0.01016 cm) x 1.08g/cc = 9.175g = 9.2kgs (20.3 lbs).

Roll Core Weight
The Linqstat material - once prepared - is rolled onto a core so that it can be handled more easily, or mounted onto automatic equipment. This core weighs approx. 0.25 lbs/in, which translates to 9lbs for a 36″ (91.4 cm) width.

Shipping Pallet Weight
To ship the rolls, they are normally loaded onto pallets for ease of transport. These pallets each weigh approx. 35lbs.

Example for rolls of 72″ width x 0.004″ thick Linqstat

Using the information above, we can see that a roll of 72 in x 150 ft. roll will weigh is 29 lbs (13 kgs), and for a roll that is 72 in. x 750 ft. will weigh 110 lbs (50 kgs). We add to this the 35 lbs. weight of the pallet and we get the following:

• 6 rolls of 72 in x 150 ft x 0.004 in, weighs 209 lbs and for 12 rolls, it is 383 lbs.
• 2 rolls of 72 in x 750 ft x 0.004 in, weighs 255 lbs and for 4 rolls, it is 475 lbs.

Tables of these values are shown below.

LINQSTAT VCF: 72″ (in.) x 750′ (ft) x 0.004″ (in.) in V-Sheet

LINQSTAT VCF: 72″ (in.) x 150′ (ft) x 0.004″ (in.) in V-Sheet

* 3M is a registered trademark of 3M Corporation. Velostat is a trademark of 3M Corporation.
Neither is affiliated with this site.

With the industry’s ongoing drive to eliminate the hazardous substances through the 2002/95/EC directive - Restriction of Hazardous Substances (RoHS), particularly Heavy Metals and Brominated Flame Retardants (PBBs & PBDEs), the question often arises whether MJ Gordon’s Carnauba Wax Aerosol Spray complies with the directive given that it [...]

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