Greetings all, Last week I had an interesting experience I thought was worth sharing with the discussion group. It's all about anti-static insulating tape, which sounds oxymoronic to me.
Currently, in my company, we use several styles of tape for safety insulation, both in design of transformers and on circuit boards. One of our outsource suppliers requested the use of 3M #5419 polyimide tape to replace 3M #1205 polyimide tape. This alternate tape has anti-static properties and the reason for the request was that they wanted to reduce the possibility of static discharge damaging nearby solid-sate electronics. A noble cause indeed, but I was immediately concerned because "anti-static" indicates to me measurable conductivity and not true insulation. Instead of dismissing the request out of hand, I decided to check it out. The 3M tape #5419 is high temperature tape formulated specifically for solder masking. It is not represented as an insulating tape by 3M Co. or by UL. 3M polyimide (Kapton) tapes actually listed for insulating applications are under UL file number E17385. This file lists a large number of insulating tapes among which are the only versions of Kapton that are recognized for electrical use, 3M tapes #92 and #1205. You may review the UL yellow card here: http://database.ul.com/cgi-bin/XYV/template/LISEXT/1FRAME/showpage.html?name =OANZ2.E17385&ccnshorttitle=Insulating+Tape+-+Component&objid=1073766682&cfg id=1073741824&version=versionless&parent_id=1073766513&sequence=1 If this long hyperlink gets broken up in email, you will need to reconstruct it in your web browser. Alternatively you may search UL's certification database for E173865 at: http://database.ul.com/cgi-bin/XYV/template/LISEXT/1FRAME/gfilenbr.html Just to be sure, I called the 3M Helps line (800) 364-3577 and they gave me the Industrial Tape & Specialties Div. (800) 362-3550 who handles the #5419 tape. These folks were completely unfamiliar with electrical questions I was asking and passed me on to the 3M Electrical Products Div. (800) 245-3573. Here, I was told #5419 has never been evaluated for any sort of electrical application. I was also told this tape achieves its low static characteristic by either coating or embedding the tape with conductive particles. Since these particles directly conflict with our need for electrical insulating properties, 3M tapes #40, #42, #5413 and #5419 may not be used for electrical insulating tape. So, my initial feeling was correct, but now I am concerned that when I say Kapton tape can be used in an application, I have to make myself clear that it's the correct kind of Kapton tape. Regards to all, -doug ----------- Douglas E. Powell, Compliance Engineer Advanced Energy Industries, Inc. mailto:doug.pow...@aei.com ----------- _________________________________________ This message, including any attachments, may contain information that is confidential and proprietary information of Advanced Energy Industries, Inc. The dissemination, distribution, use or copying of this message or any of its attachments is strictly prohibited without the express written consent of Advanced Energy Industries, Inc. ------------------------------------------- This message is from the IEEE EMC Society Product Safety Technical Committee emc-pstc discussion list. Visit our web site at: http://www.ewh.ieee.org/soc/emcs/pstc/ To cancel your subscription, send mail to: majord...@ieee.org with the single line: unsubscribe emc-pstc For help, send mail to the list administrators: Ron Pickard: emc-p...@hypercom.com Dave Heald: davehe...@attbi.com For policy questions, send mail to: Richard Nute: ri...@ieee.org Jim Bacher: j.bac...@ieee.org All emc-pstc postings are archived and searchable on the web at: http://ieeepstc.mindcruiser.com/ Click on "browse" and then "emc-pstc mailing list"
