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Specialty Coating Systems’ roots date back to the 1970’s when Parylene conformal coatings were first commercialized due to William F. Gorham's work at Union Carbide Corporation (UCC). We are proud of our heritage, which has afforded us over 40 years of coating and applications expertise. Since the being of this innovation, Specialty Coating Systems has continued to develop coating technologies and provided high quality Parylene conformal coating services and expertise to the medical device, electronics, automotive and military/aerospace industries.
SCS Parylene conformal coatings are ultra-thin, pinhole-free polymer coatings that provide a number of high-value surface treatment properties such as excellent moisture, chemical and dielectric barrier properties, thermal and UV stability, and dry-film lubricity. These properties make SCS Parylene coatings the ideal choice for a number of applications throughout the medical device, electronics, automotive, military and aerospace industries.
By 1947, Dr. Michael Mojzesz Szwarc had escaped the ravages of Eastern Europe and was launching an academic career in Physical Chemistry at the University of Manchester, England. His interest in the strength of individual chemical bonds had developed to the point of investigating a class of aliphatic carbon-hydrogen bonds in which the carbon was directly attached to a benzene ring. Experimentally, he heated the simplest compounds having these groups- toluene and the xylenes, ortho-, meta- and para-, as gases to very high temperatures and followed their degradation products and the rates at which they decomposed, both as a function of temperature.
Parylene is the generic name for members of a unique polymer series. These members (or variations of Parylene) each offer their own, slightly different, coating properties to engineers. Commercially available Parylene variants, along with their respective properties, include:
- Parylene N - The basic member of the series, Parylene N, is poly(para-xylylene), a completely linear, highly crystalline material.
- Parylene C - The second commercially available member of the Parylene series, is produced from the same raw material (dimer) as Parylene N, modified only by the substitution of a chlorine atom for one of the aromatic hydrogens.
- Parylene D – The third member of the series, is produced from the same raw material as Parylene N, modified by the substitution of chlorine atoms for two of the aromatic hydrogens.
- Parylene HT® - The newest commercially available variant of Parylene, replaces the alpha hydrogen atom of the N dimer with fluorine. This Parylene variant has increased UV stability, excellent thermal stability, low coefficient of friction, and many other properties.
Parylene coatings are applied at ambient temperatures with specialized vacuum deposition equipment. Parylene polymer deposition takes place at the molecular level, where films essentially ‘grow’ a molecule at a time. Because Parylene is applied as a gas, the coating effortlessly penetrates crevices and tight areas on multi-layer components, providing complete and uniform encapsulation. Learn more about our deposition process.
Putting SCS Parylene knowledge to work.
More detailed information regarding the Parylene variants, and their respective properties and benefits, can be found in the SCS Parylene Properties brochure, which is available for download in the SCS Technical Library. You can also find market-specific brochures containing relevant properties and applications in the library.
If you have questions about specific SCS Parylene properties, test methods and procedures, or how SCS Parylenes can benefit your application, contact SCS online or call us toll-free at 800.356.8260 (outside the US, call +1.317.451.8549).
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