Why choose Dow Performance Silicones?
Dow Performance Silicones has been a global leader in silicone-based technology for more than 70 years. Headquartered in Michigan, USA, we maintain manufacturing sites, sales and customer service offices, and research and development labs in every major geographic market worldwide to ensure you receive fast, reliable support for your processing and application development needs.
Unique product technology
To describe Dow Performance Silicones is to describe the history and evolution of silicone technology, which generated a legacy of innovative and reliable products under the Dow Corning label for more than seven decades. Today that legacy continues under the DOWSIL™ brand name, which encompasses more than 7,000 proven silicone products and services. Few companies offer a conformal coatings portfolio with comparable breadth and proven performance, and none match our history in silicone technology.
Why silicone coatings from Dow?
In one word: Reliability. The versatility of silicone chemistry expands design freedoms, increases processing options, broadens performance parameters, and introduces unique options for sustainability. Compared specifically to organic-based coatings, silicone solutions offer these valuable benefits.
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Greater thermal stability
Silicones perform reliably at sustained temperatures as low as -45°C and as high as 150°C – a far broader range than organic coatings, which degrade at such extreme temperatures. Many silicones can even withstand brief exposure to temperatures up to 250°C.
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Stress relief
Silicone conformal coatings offer an extraordinarily broad range of durometers, as well as extremely low modulus options. That means they deliver better stress relief on delicate board components during thermal cycling.
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Solventless fast cure
Silicones – including UV-cure grades – are nearly all solventless, making them the material of choice where emerging regulations impose complex and costly special handling and processing requirements.
Choose your viscosity
DOWSIL™ conformal coatings come in a range of viscosities to help you meet all of your processing and application demands.
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Low viscosity for high-speed production
Our low-viscosity silicone coatings support high-speed production methods, including manual or automated spraying, flow, or jetting techniques. These faster flowing materials are also suitable options when you want your coating to flow through vias or under chips.
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Higher viscosity for greater control
Offering incrementally higher viscosities, this category of silicone coatings provides increasing control over the speed and distance of flow, to prevent their spread into “no go” areas. Higher viscosity silicones also enable thicker coating layers in one pass, and some grades even offer a stable coat on tall vertical surfaces.
Choose your cure profile
Choose your cure profile Versatile DOWSIL™ silicone coatings offer flexible cure profiles to allow you to select the optimal solution for your production line setup, volume, and application.
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Fast, moisture cure
These coatings cure quickly at room temperature to provide a “dispense and forget” solution that is tack-free, and ready to move down the production line in less than ten minutes, making them the ideal option for high-volume assembly operations. Cure – and productivity – can be further accelerated with application of heat or irradiation with ultraviolet (UV) energy.
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Extended-working-time moisture cure
Silicone coatings in this category also cure at room temperature, but permit more time for the material to flow further over large or complex boards. They are also the preferred solution for applications that require a thicker coating.
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Heat cure
Sometimes labeled “command cure” for the control they allow over the rate of cure, coatings in this category are the material of choice when your processing operation demands full cure in under five minutes. They may also impose lower stress on board components during thermal cycling.
Choose your hardness
Silicones can deliver lower modulus than any organic conformal coating material. This makes them ideal for minimizing stress on small, fine wires or sensitive solder joints. Yet silicone’s versatile chemistry enables hard coatings that exhibit abrasion resistance, approaching acrylic or urethane solutions. Regardless of what your application requires, Dow can provide a conformal coating with the right durometers to meet your demands.
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Highest stress relief
Our softest silicone coatings maximize stress relief on very fine wires, or dense components that can be most susceptible to thermal cycling.
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Stress relief
The ideal alternative to brittle organic coatings, silicones in this category offer an optimal combination of stress relief and protection against harsher environmental elements, such as moisture, dust, vibration, and impact.
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Abrasion resistant
Silicones in this class cure to form hard, tough coatings comparable to acrylics – except silicones offer greater flexibility, and perform reliably at much higher and lower temperatures.
Choose solventless silicones
While Dow offers solvent-based elastoplastic coatings that mimic the hardness of acrylic, most of our silicone products are solventless. This is becoming an important selection criterion for coatings, as the use of solvents may require implementation of worker safety protocols, special equipment, handling and processing considerations for flammable solvents, and the need to meet environmental regulations. Choosing solventless silicone coatings can eliminate complexity, cost, and time to your manufacturing operations.
