You have the hardware and software. You have got the conformal coating machine.

You have got the software that controls the spray of the board. Your high speed
fluid dispenser sprays the right mix and amount of coating to your PCBs. Now you
r conformal coating PCB test article is ready to for evaluation. While the quali
ty of coating was impressive, the thickness was not even - it was thick in some
areas and thin in other areas.
Thats a situation youll want to avoid, and if you are a technician, engineer or ot
her professional teaching points to a coating machine program to coat your circu
it card assemblies, you need to be ever vigilant about conformal coat thickness.
This article will show you how to ensure the coating program give you the right
thickness when applying acrylic coating to your machine, and how to test if the
product is compliant to the specification.
Standards for Conformal Coat Thickness
The most popular conformal coatings used in industry today are Humiseal 1B31 and
MG Chemicals 419C The material is relatively cheap, easy to use and provide exc
ellent moisture protection. There are industry standards for conformal coat thic
kness for acrylics and when adhering to IPC-610, type AR conformal coatings, and
the thickness should be in between . 002 and . 005. MIL-I-46058C indicates that
the thickness should be . 002 +/- . 001. Most manufacturers aim between about . 0
02 to . 003, and meeting that guideline will ensure that you stay within the two m
ajor thresholds of the two major specifications called out in the standard.
Everyone should know what the standard is. It is found in the company s product
specification sheet. The finished substrate should achieve the right thickness b
y the conformal coating machine. If the PCB does not have standard thickness, th
en the coating has failed to prevent moisture ingress on it.

With the correct coating machine that match the PCB requirement, the standard ca
n be met. Now it is up to the program to tweak the setting to the right amount o
f passes on the PCB to ensure the substrate achieve the correct thickness. Incor
rect conformal coating thickness is caused by either too many passes or too few
passes. This is configured in the software setting.
All it takes is for the programmer to adjust the software setting to achieve the
desired range. There are two ways to measure the conformal coating thickness using a manual process or testing equipement.
Coating Thickness Measuring Techniques
It is important to achieve the standard of the desired thickness, regardless of
the conformal coating equipment used. You can achieve the desired result by cali
brating the process and tweaking the setting. The are measuring tools for the th
ickness. They are either dry or wet film measurements.
Dry Coating Thickness Measurement
Conformal coating for PCB dry film measurements are made after the coating dries
enough for any contact made with the coating, so that any contact made during t
he process wont damage the coating. For this method, measurements are taken on un
encumbered, flat and cured surface of a PCB, or on a coupon processed with the p
art.
Test coupons are used quite often in industry to measure coating and it is easy
and relatively inexpensive to do. The coupons provide a record for quality assur
ance. This ensure the coating characteristics and parameters are up to par with

the specifications.
One way to spray coating to test involves procuring some coupons made up of nonp
orous material, such as glass or metal. Glass slides (used in biology or chemist
ry) work really well. Test coupon made of the same material as the PCB work best
. The sticky dot method works really well, too. Identify the areas you want to tak
e a measurement and measure it with micrometers or an indicator thats accurate to
12. 5+_2. 5m on, and begin the test by spraying it with the acrylic material.
Dry the area. Then measure the area once more. The difference between the beginn
ing and end measurements will be your record for thickness. Write these measurem
ent in a standardized record. This is proof that the thickness was calibrated be
fore the production run. Run other tests periodically to ensure the process rema
ins correct.
Another dry method that is used frequently is testing equipment that utilizes ed
dy currents to test conformal coat thickness. It is a little more expensive, but
involves a non-contact technique. The measurements involve lightly placing a te
st probe head on the surface of the coating to get an almost instantaneous reado
ut. If the production amount of PCBs on conformal coating printed circuit boards
is high, you might want to invest in this method. The measurement devices are e
xtremely accurate, up to thin films of 25-50 um and 1 um for a device such as the
Positestor 6000, and are also recommended for high volume because they are also
very quick to display measurement readings.
Wet Film Conformal Coating Measurement
This method involves using a wet film gauge to measure the coating while its stil
l wet, and it allows operators to test and help accomplish quality assurance bef
ore the coating dries.
There are advantages to using this method. Applying to much conformal coating co
sts money. It is also useful for conformal coating processes where dry coating t
hickness can only be measured by using destructive methods.
How to do it: the wet film gauge is placed into the wet conformal coating after
application until the teeth of it contacts the substrate or surface of the compo
nents measured. There are measurements on the gauge that indicate how thick the
coating is. Count the measurement line that the conformal coating has risen to.
You will be able to tell the dry film coating thickness by calculating it from m
easurement s derived from the solid resin content of the coating on the PCB.