Epec's Blog | Electronics Manufacturing Solutions

Flexible heaters made from silicon and polyimide materials are designed to provide heating features to a wide range of applications. Their flexibility allows the heaters to wrap around odd-shaped surfaces when used inside or outside products. The flexibility of the heater is to provide enough heat for the intended application at the specific area without interfering with its functions.

When talking about flexible heaters, determining the amount of efficient heat necessary for the application is required. A range of factors impacts generated electrical heat, including the materials that are used, the wattage, the voltage, the size of the heater, and the pattern of the conducive materials within the heater. One of the vital factors in designing a flexible heater revolves around Ohm's Law.

Polyimide flexible heaters are highly desired in industries such as aerospace, medical, food service, military, and others to provide controlled heat in specified areas in their applications. This heater type may be used in instrument panels inside aircraft to provide moisture-control properties and to prevent the systems from malfunctioning due to extreme cold temperatures at high altitudes. They may also be found in medical diagnostic devices, analytical test equipment, optoelectronic components, and many other applications.

When applications and products require heating options, polyimide and silicone rubber flexible heaters are ideal for a wide range of uses. With optimal heat transfer, they can provide the right temperatures for electronics, instrument panels, sensors, medical devices, and food service products.

When we use electronics in commercial settings, one of the major factors that must be taken into consideration is the different temperatures that the circuitry and wiring will experience. Not every electronic device will be used in a stable indoor working environment like an office space.

Around the world, different industries have applications and equipment where there will be changing temperatures, humidity, or moisture that can impact how a component operates or processes signals. There may also be instances where a product needs to be at a certain temperature so that it may be processed, such as a liquid chemical or food product that has to be at the right temperature, so that it will be fluid enough to be packaged into containers.

From controlling condensation on electronics to keeping food warm, flexible heaters provide many advantages to commercial industries such as medical, electronics, aerospace, food and beverage, and refrigeration. Silicone and Kapton® heaters are the most common heaters used due to their flexibility, great thermal transfer, rapid warmup and varying temperature applications.

Manufacturers requiring localized heating for their applications turn to the advantages of flexible heaters that are mounted to components and equipment. These heaters can provide low level or high-level heat at varying temperatures to offer the appropriate thermal transfer based on the applications.

Whether used in the aerospace industry to de-ice equipment, or the food industry to bring ingredients up to a suitable temperature, flexible heaters provide the right amount of generated heat based on the application. These types of heaters can be attached to smooth, bulky and curved equipment in different sizes and functions.

ENEPIG (Electroless Nickel, Immersion Palladium, Immersion Gold) was derived out of the need to combat the challenge with the immersion gold process and Black Pad Syndrome. Black Pad (the hyper corrosion of underlying nickel) was baffling both PCB assemblers and manufacturers. After much analysis, the root cause was determined to be the nickel deposit.