High-impact plastics are rapidly replacing metal casings for electronic equipment, especially in medical, military, and aerospace applications where weight minimization is one of the primary design objectives. Also, the “lightening” of industrial products is nowadays a priority throughout manufacturing. Plastics are the material of choice because they’re less expensive than metal, can be easily molded or cast into attractive shapes, and allow for more “form & function” design flexibility for engineers.
But for all their relative virtues over metal, plastics are nonetheless completely pervious to EMI, RFI, and ESD interference, all of which can cause catastrophic electronic failure. This has been a major design challenge for plastic in electronic applications, at least until now.
VAETEC® Thin Film Deposition is a precise process that ensures the repeatability of coating on intricate plastic surfaces. The VAETEC® process involves placing components in a vacuum deposition chamber in which vaporized aluminum adheres to the plastic as a thin layer. This thin layer of aluminum provides EMI, RFI and ESD absorption. This process is better than the old way of using conductive spray painting. Conductive spray painting was once the norm, but it is a less controllable process and can result in flaking or cracking of the shield, as well as non-uniform esthetics.
