Electronics products can be compromised by moisture, shock, change in altitude and various other changes in product environment. Conformal coatings (urethane, acrylic, silicon, varnish…) and systems, whether for small builds or high-volume and in-line processing, help combat against product quality and performance degradation.

Some manufacturers apply conformal coating manually, depending on usage requirements.

For automated conformal coating applications (think: microdot, atomizers) because conformal coating ‘sets up’ so quickly when applied its a good idea to keep conformal coating machines absolutely spotless otherwise valves and nozzles can plug which then can set off a whole chain effect of other problems that can be difficult for quality-minded manufacturers to recover from.

Applying conformal coating to SMT circuit board assemblies automatically using a conformal coating machine designed for this purpose is not only much faster, it is much more accurate and more effective vs a surface mount line worker dipping a brush into a cup and brushing the conformal coating onto the board.

When buying conformal coating equipment look for machine accuracy, equipment durability and it’s also important to consider the conformal coating machine software.

Some conformal machine software can be ‘clunky’ and become a very manual process to set up. You want software that is dynamic. Some older conformal coating machines, even some 2018 models, require a long, manual set up process. There’s no fixing this, its just the nature of the program for these machines and how they work.

For some particular brands and models, even though they are just a few years old, you might assume they would have offline programming. But, instead, even fairly recent machines have to be ‘taught’, which can quickly become tedious. General updates for these equipment types are done online, and the machine can update itself when connected. Facing this type of scenario, many electronics manufactures seek offline programing capability for their conformal coating machines.

Additionally, while many conformal coating equipment brands offer service agreements, with proper staffing and training, your manufacturing production support technicians can perform moderate to some high level maintenance without calling in a licensed service technician for the used equipment.

For manufacturers looking to update their conformal coating capabilities keep an eye open in the used equipment space and used equipment brokers. You can get used, sometimes rarely used, machines with low run times for $30,000 for a 2018 machine vs $90,000 for a 2022. You can find used conformal equipment machines ranging from anywhere from $15,000 to $50,000. To help in your decision-making, when possible, speak with a technician with a history of working on the brand, and make, of the used conformal equipment you’re looking at.

As you move through your equipment decisions for conformal coating, know its easy for automated conformal coating practices to get sloppy, and it can be easy for assembly line workers to do higher volumes without much attention to quality and care of workmanship.

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