High heat and toughness sealant Research and Development Department of Company X, an electronic materials manufacturer
Automotive device sealant challenge
Toughness additive overcomes epoxy shortcomings
Company X has been receiving an increasing number of inquiries from customers regarding sealants for automotive devices. In recent years, with the advancement of CASE, the number of ECUs installed in vehicles has increased, creating a need for highly reliable sealants for the devices used there. The company embarked on the development of a new sealant, but ran into a problem.
Challenges
We want to create a heat-resistant sealing material that can withstand high temperatures of around 180℃ to 200℃...
The challenge was to make the encapsulant heat-resistant and tough. Automotive devices are required to be able to operate under harsh thermal and vibration environments, and the performance of the encapsulant used has a significant impact on the reliability of the device.
Mr. S from the Research and Development Department, who was in charge of this issue and rushed to take measures, recalls:
"The customer required heat resistance of around 180 to 200 degrees Celsius. Furthermore, since it was intended for use in automobiles, high toughness was also required to prevent peeling and cracking due to vibration. However, achieving both heat resistance and high toughness was quite difficult."
The R&D department repeatedly tried to modify the epoxy resin, changing the formulation of additives such as elastomers and engineering plastics, and modifying the epoxy resin, using the epoxy resin they had been using up until then as the base resin. However, they were unable to achieve the target heat resistance temperature and toughness at the same time. Furthermore, the viscosity became too high, causing problems during molding and sometimes resulting in inconsistent quality.
"We contacted resin manufacturers and trading companies we do business with, and ordered and tried various additives and modified epoxy resins, but the results were disappointing. If we continued like this, we wouldn't be able to meet our customers' demands," said Mr. S.
In this situation, Mr. S and the other members of the research and development department were helpless.
Key Challenges
In developing an encapsulant for automotive devices, heat resistance of 180 to 200°C and high toughness to prevent peeling and cracking due to vibration were required.
We considered changing the compounding of additives and modifying them using epoxy resin, which we have knowledge of, as the base resin, but we were unable to achieve both the target heat resistance temperature and toughness.