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Guest editor Kelly Dack recently spoke with Phil McDermott of CHT. Phil gave Kelly a brief overview of the products designers, engineers, and manufacturers might need, particularly when it comes to thermal management.
Kelly Dack: I’m here with Phil McDermott from CHT. Tell me a little about the products you have with you today.
Phil McDermott: We have some silicone foam; and this really cool chemistry because it’s dispensed as a liquid. Over time it will rise pretty fast and will cure to a light, flame-retardant material.
Dack: What’s the flammability rating on this?
McDermott: That's rated at UL94v-0. It could be used for a battery pack like this, where you would spray in some foam, and it slowly would foam up, providing protection from flame and heat transfer.
Dack: How is it dispensed? Is it automated or handed dispensed?
McDermott: It's best if it's automatically dispensed through equipment, but you can also dispense by hand through a caulker. It cures fast, so it's not ideal for hand mixing. For fast throughput, you really want it to be auto dispensed.
Dack: Is there heat and thermal effects involved as it cures?
McDermott: No. It cures at room temperature. It self-blows, so the curing and foaming processes are all done in about 10 minutes.
Dack: Tell me about your next application.
McDermott: We have some optical materials, and as you can see, this material forms a nice lens. This is actually a SilSo Clear 21002, and this material is actually used for headlamps, so it has a very stable high transparency over time. It can be used for LED stripping as well. With the transmissivity of the material state, it stays clear for a long period of time so you don't lose the transmittance or any color change.
Dack: What’s next here?
McDermott: We have some thermal management materials. This is a potting material that helps dissipate heat. As our electronics get increasingly smaller, they get even hotter because they have to work in a smaller environment. These materials dissipate the heat and transfer it out from a hotspot.
Dack: What will our design and manufacturing communities need to know regarding how to specify this material? I'm sure it needs to show up in a bill of material.
McDermott: We have a variety of different materials available. Some are very thick, while some are flowable. You really need to understand what application you're going into, whether it's a potting material where it just flows around all the components, or if it's actually like this material right here, which is acting as an adhesive thermal sink. You can see it on the back. A key question is how much heat will you dissipate? We can deliver anywhere from 0.5 to up to 4 W/mK as a one-part cure or two-part cure.
We can supply anywhere from small caulker all the way up to totes of material, based on your need. We have multiple manufacturing sites around the world. We can distribute from Europe to China.
Dack: Excellent. I think you’ll want designers and engineers, especially, along with all the manufacturers, to know that CHT is here with the materials that suit their manufacturing support packaging needs.
McDermott: Thanks.
