I had recently asked about cautions regarding the use of Kapton (polyimide) insulation for wiring used in manned aircraft. John Zenter sent me this email, and I have his permission to share it with our list. Ed Price <mailto:[email protected]> [email protected] WB6WSN NARTE Certified EMC Engineer & Technician Electromagnetic Compatibility Lab Cubic Defense Applications San Diego, CA USA 858-505-2780 (Voice) 858-505-1583 (FAX) Military & Avionics EMC Is Our Specialty _____
From: "Zentner, John C CTR USAF AFRL/RYRA" <[email protected]> List-Post: [email protected] Date: Mon, 22 Oct 2007 07:45:53 -0400 Subject: RE: Kapton The big issue with Kapton-insulated wiring was carbon arc tracking, where an electrical arc initiated by a short circuit can travel along the wire due to carbon deposits. That issue was with MIL-W-81381 constructions where the insulation material was purely Kapton (chemical name is polyimide). That construction has been largely replaced by hybrid constructions that are combinations of Kapton and Teflon that suppress arc tracking (see SAE-AS22759 in place of MIL-W-22759). The issue with 81381 was only with power wiring. Kapton is routinely used in commercial items for high-voltage applications and printer ribbon cable among other uses. John Z ______________________________________________________________________ This e-mail has been scanned by MCI Managed Email Content Service, using Skeptic(tm) technology powered by MessageLabs. For more information on MCI's Managed Email Content Service, visit http://www.mci.com. ______________________________________________________________________ - ---------------------------------------------------------------- This message is from the IEEE Product Safety Engineering Society emc-pstc discussion list. Website: http://www.ieee-pses.org/ To post a message to the list, send your e-mail to [email protected] Instructions: http://listserv.ieee.org/request/user-guide.html List rules: http://www.ieee-pses.org/listrules.html For help, send mail to the list administrators: Scott Douglas [email protected] Mike Cantwell [email protected] For policy questions, send mail to: Jim Bacher: [email protected] David Heald: [email protected] All emc-pstc postings are archived and searchable on the web at: http://www.ieeecommunities.org/emc-pstc
