Laminating electrically conductive plastic sheets together

Using a sim­ple lam­i­na­tor, two 4mil sheets of Lin­q­s­tat vol­ume con­duc­tive film mate­r­i­al (a 3M Velo­stat Alter­na­tive) are lam­i­nat­ed togeth­er to form a sin­gle 8mil film. This can be done if only 4mil sheets are avail­able, or if small­er quan­ti­ties of 8mil sheet­ing is desired. Of course, it is pre­ferred to buy the sheets in the prop­er thick­ness and width, but some­times — just for the sake of exper­i­ment­ing — you might want to try lam­i­nat­ing elec­tri­cal­ly con­duc­tive plas­tic sheets together.

Is there a risk to laminating electrically conductive plastic sheets?

It depends. If the goal of the exper­i­ment is sim­ply to see if the thick­ness of the con­duc­tive plas­tic is suit­able for your appli­ca­tion, then go right ahead. If the goal with the two sheets of plas­tic is to test the elec­tri­cal­ly con­duc­tive prop­er­ties, then this may not be the best idea. 

Dur­ing the pro­duc­tion of the LINQSTAT mate­r­i­al, the con­duc­tive and non-con­duc­tive mate­ri­als are mixed togeth­er to get a homo­ge­neous mix­ture and even con­duc­tiv­i­ty lev­el. If these two sheets are then lam­i­nat­ed togeth­er aftwer­wards, then there is a lay­er between the two sheets that may not be rep­re­sen­ta­tive of sim­ply a thick­er lay­er of elec­tri­cal­ly con­duc­tive plastic.

How can I laminate electrically conductive plastic sheets together?

If after you under­stand the risks of lam­i­nat­ing two sheets togeth­er, you still want to pro­ceed, then this video will explain the way to do it. You will see in the video one exam­ple, using a com­mod­i­ty — a plas­tic film lam­i­na­tor, but it can also be done using any heat­ing ele­ment such as an iron. The goal is to get the plas­tic above its melt­ing tem­per­a­ture so that the plas­tic melts and makes new bonds once it is cooled back down to room temperature.

We hope you enjoyed this short video.

CAPLINQ is a spe­cial­ty plas­tics sup­pli­er offer­ing a range of con­duc­tive mate­ri­als includ­ing our broad range of elec­tri­cal­ly con­duc­tive plas­tics and anti­sta­t­ic tapes and films. If you have any ques­tions, please don’t hes­i­tate to con­tact us to find out how we can help you lam­i­nat­ing elec­tri­cal­ly con­duc­tive sheets.