Epec's Blog | Electronics Manufacturing Solutions

At the conclusion of our webinar, How to Properly Select LEDs for Your Keypad, we had several questions submitted to our presenter, Steven J. Goodman, User Interface and Cable Assembly Product Manager at Epec. We have compiled these questions into a readable format on our blog.

Flexible heaters are essential devices to provide heat to specific areas of an application. They are used in a wide range of industries including aerospace, medical, food service, and military. When applying heat to a surface, the right types of materials must be used for the heater. The heater must be flexible enough to bend and wrap around curved surfaces while avoiding working parts. They also have to be able to provide optimal heat transfer without damaging either the application or the heater’s elements and circuitry.

Flexible heaters allow customers to apply heat at targeted areas at any given moment. This procedure is desired for applications for a variety of reasons, such as preventing condensation to form on instrument panels, keeping the consistency of semi-fluid materials so that they may pass through pipe systems, or keeping systems warm during extreme environmental temperatures.

Flexible heaters are used in applications to keep systems, electronics, and products at the appropriate temperatures utilize a range of materials and thicknesses to achieve optimal heat output. Often when reaching out to a manufacturer, the customer will be asked to provide specifications regarding the application. The manufacturer will need to understand the wattage desired for the flexible heater and the temperature output that the flexible heater will provide.

Flexible heaters are used in numerous industries to provide heat in a selective area to deal with; condensation and mist, food processes, keeping electronics warm due to environmental temperature changes or keeping liquids in a fluid state. Temperature sensors are used to monitor the temperature of the flexible heater as well as the surface that is being heated.

At the conclusion of our webinar, EMI Shielding Methods for Flex & Rigid-Flex PCB Designs, we had several questions submitted to our presenter, Paul Tome, Product Manager of Flex & Rigid-Flex Circuits at Epec. We have compiled these questions into a readable format on our blog.

Typically, constraints are not something a designer wants to incorporate into a new project when first getting started on a new product. When you hear “constraint”, the first word that may come to mind could be “limitation”. Generally speaking, that word association is accurate, however, when dealing with CAD software it is not necessarily a negative thing.

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.

At the conclusion of our webinar, PCB Design & Layout - Checklist of What You Need Before You Start, we had several questions submitted to our presenter, Angie Brown, PCB Product Manager at Epec. We have compiled these questions into a readable format on our blog.

You may have encountered the acronym STP or STEP while learning about or working on projects that involve computer-aided design. But what exactly is it? A STEP file is a 3D-model file formatted in STEP, which stands for Standard for the Exchange of Product Data. STEP files are used to store 3D-image data in an ASCII format, following the standards defined in ISO 10303-21, introduced by the ISO committee in 1994. This specification created a file structure which could be recognized by multiple modeling programs, thus enhancing the ability for design data to be exchanged.