Table Of Contents
Key Points
- CHOFORM 5513 is commonly used in the Defense industry
- It offers strong adhesion, excellent shielding, and is suitable for a variety of projects with complex geometries or space constraints
- Choose Modus Advanced as your partner leveraging Parker Chomerics EMI shielding materials
Designing a gasket for your defense project is arguably one of the most difficult parts, simply because there are so many materials to choose from. We’ve worked with plenty of different materials over the last 40-plus years here at Modus, and we want to share our expertise with you.
Read on to learn about Parker Chomerics gasket materials for military applications.
Modus Advanced is proud to routinely employ Parker Chomerics materials in a variety of applications for our customers. Want to learn more about the variety of materials Parker Chomerics has to offer? Read the Parker Chomerics EMI Shielding Material Guide.
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Learn everything you need to know about Parker Chomerics EMI Shielding Materials
About Parker Chomerics
Parker Chomerics is a global leader in the development of thermal interface and electrically conductive materials. If you’ve been in the defense industry for any length of time, you’re likely very familiar with the name – for good reason, too!
These high-quality materials prove time and time again that they have the level of performance necessary to meet the needs of your devices in the most extreme and unforgiving environments. Whether it’s communications equipment on a Navy SEAL heading to combat or an up-armored humvee navigating hostile ground, Parker Chomerics materials are the ones sought after.
Today, we’re highlighting the CHOFORM product line, specifically CHOFORM 5513 and its critical role in defense applications. Let’s get to it.
EMI Shielding Materials for Defense Applications
As technology is becoming more advanced, devices are shrinking in size. With such stringent requirements for military applications, it can be difficult to find the right material to check all the boxes. Parker Chomerics CHOFORM form-in-place materials product line are ideal for densely populated electronics packaging making it ideal for military applications. If your design also requires intercompartmental isolation to separate processing and signal generating functions, CHOFORM gaskets may be the answer.
Typically, there is very little room, if any, for adjustment or design change once a design has been approved. Materials need to meet the size and space requirements and there’s no negotiating on effectiveness. EMI shielding in defense applications can quite literally mean life and death – almost isn’t good enough. The cost of poor quality can be catastrophic.
These EMI shielding materials are robotically dispensed which creates precise gasket beads on metal and plastic housings. FIP gaskets are a great fit for complex geometries and small cross sections, while also being conscious of your budget. Since there is limited material waste, as compared to die cutting for example, FIP EMI gaskets are a great choice for DoD contractors that have budgetary restrictions.
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Learn How to Select Materials and Design for EMI Shielding Applications
Features / Benefits of CHOFORM 5513
We often see CHOFORM 5513 as the material of choice for many defense applications – everything from handheld communication devices to missile electronics applications. CHOFORM 5513 has plenty of benefits that meet the needs of our defense partners.
Per the Conductive Elastomer Engineering Handbook from Parker Chomerics, CHOFORM materials typically establish 4 to 12 N/cm adhesion to many substrates. This includes magnesium and aluminum alloys and commonly used conductive films such as Ni/Cu plating, vacuum metalized coatings, and conductive paints. Each of the CHOFORM materials are durable, conformable gaskets, and can be applied as small as 0.025 in (0.64 mm) high by 0.040 in (1.0 mm) wide, delivering Cpk values >1.33.
CHOFORM 5513 is a thermal cure silicone system that provides greater than 70dB shielding effectiveness and excellent adhesion to chromate-coated aluminum surfaces. It consists of an Ag/Cu particle conductive filler and has a thermal cure cycle of only 30 minutes at 140 degrees Celsius. This material must be stored frozen at -10 degrees Celsius, +/- 2 degrees Celsius.
Beyond meeting the immediate technical needs of our defense industry partners, CHOFORM 5513 has several additional benefits that you can expect to reap:
- Excellent shielding effectiveness: The shielding effectiveness of CHOFORM gaskets exceeds 100 dB between 200MHz and 12 GHz. Shielding performance gets better with cross-sectional dimensions.
- Denser packaging is possible: Decreased device size means our frontline heroes are able to maneuver with increased precision on the battlefield. CHOFORM gaskets can be applied to walls or flanges as narrow as 0.025 in, and do not require mechanical retention, saving a significant amount of space. CHOFORM gaskets typically save 60% or more space. (Plus, partnering with us means we’ll always test the limits of bead size.)
- Small cross sections, complex geometries: Gasket application to sloped surfaces is fully programmable allowing for virtually any gasket bead path to be executed. The system produces reliable junctions between bead paths that provide continuous EMI shielding and environmental sealing.
- Low closure force is not a problem: CHOFORM gasket materials are ideal for low-deflection force designs, or those whose mating surfaces have low mechanical rigidity.
- Application is fully programmable in 3 axes: Easily accommodates uneven surfaces.
- Tight dimensional control and terminations: CHOFORM gasket beads are dispensed with an accuracy of 0.001 in (0.025 mm), and a cross-sectional height tolerance of 0.006 in (0.15 mm).
You Need the Best, Choose Parker Chomerics
CHOFORM 5513 might be a great fit for your next defense project if you need an EMI shielding gasket that will perform when it matters most and when failure could put lives on the line. If you want the best, you need Parker Chomerics CHOFORM EMI gasket materials in your project.
Have you got a defense project in mind? Let us leverage our years of vertically integrated manufacturing experience to help you bring your design to life. Contact us today.
