EMI Shielding | Metal Plating Process

What is EMI Shielding?

Equipment in many industries requires the use of electromagnetic or EMI shielding for practical and/or legal purposes. For example, medical equipment in hospitals must meet FDA standards in order to function without interference from other electronic equipment.

Simply put, EMI shielding protects electronics from malfunctioning due to electromagnetic pulses. The electromagnetic pulses may come from within the equipment itself, or they could originate from the outside. The shielding also protects other external equipment from potential interference caused by the product emitting the pulses. It is applied most often as a spray, but can also take the form of paints or brush-on coatings. Nickel, silver, and copper are common metals used in sprays.

Radiation and Conduction with EMI Shielding

Electromagnetic shielding reduces EMI by reflecting and/or absorbing conductive materials. Equipment enclosures and circuit boards are common areas for shielding. If EMI shielding is used correctly, it can protect electronic systems from external radiation by breaking the path of electromagnetic waves. Lower frequencies need thicker shielding to absorb wave energy, while higher frequencies require a thin shielding that mostly reflects wave energy. The distance between the shield and source of electromagnetic energy, as well as the shield’s material properties and energy’s frequency, will determine shielding performance.

EMI Shielding at VTI

VTI uses a metal plating process to apply metallized plastic coatings in the form of vacuum evaporated technologies (VAETEC®) to plastic enclosures. Its state-of-the-industry metal plating process produces a consistently high level of metal plating quality. See more on the metal plating and shielding processes

VTI Vacuum Technologies Inc. specializes in coating plastic electronic enclosures by providing EMI/RFI shielding solutions for design engineers in the medical device and military communications markets and also provides value-added process capabilities of robotically dispensed form in place gasket materials to plastic or metal components. Our customers appreciate our dedication to providing the highest quality EMI shielding, RFI shielding, and form-in-place gasketing solutions.