NASA Certified and Similarly Rated Conformal Coating Companies

NASA certification is essential to aerospace conformal coating applications, and thus is sought after by many manufacturers in the industry. In addition to 8739.1, other NASA standards, such as ASTM E595 – a test developed by NASA to determine levels of coatings’ volatile content, appropriately screening low outgassing materials for use in space – are inspection and performance parameters applicable to aerospace uses.

The AS9100/9120 and ISO 9001 qualification are international aerospace standards for quality assurance, development, production, installation and servicing also relevant to quality workmanship for aerospace products and the firms that manufacture them; equally relevant are IPC-CC-830 and IPC-A-610 classifications, from the Association Connecting Electronics Industries. These are often considered equivalent to NASA 8739.1 for aerospace conformal coatings. Also applicable is the National Aerospace and Defense Contractors Accreditation Program (Nadcap®).

Essential aerospace applications for conformal coatings include:

• Printed circuit assemblies and related circuit card assemblies
• Sensors
• Microelectricalmechanical systems (MEMS)
• Motor components
• Power supplies
• Backplanes
• Elastomeric components.

NASA’s 8739 Standards describe uniform engineering and technical requirements for processes, practices and methods that have been endorsed as standard for NASA programs and projects, including requirements for selection, application and design criteria for conformal coating and related encapsulation techniques; these are applied primarily to the manufacture and use of PCAs and electronic assemblies used in space flight components but have uses for MEMS, sensor and other systems as well. The AS9100 and ISO 9001 Standards also provide criteria for coatings similarly essential to their reliable performance during operation. Nadcap provides a standardized approach to quality assurance and suppliers must go through an extensive process audit for accreditation.

SCS is committed to providing customers superior conformal coatings, applied according to the highest specifications and standards, which generates high performance products for aerospace and all other applications.