It is most often used in the ordnance industry (an industry that deals with military equipment, specifically weapons and ammunitions) as waste container liners.  It’s easy to understand that ignitable ammunition and static charges don’t mix well, so these LINQSTAT bags are great for these applications.

Granted, we do sell some of the LINQSTAT to prevent alien abductions, but that’s just us doing our bit to save the planet.  Other applications for the volume-conductive film are for electronics and to prevent electro magnetic radiation (EMR), thought these afre mainly for the tubing and sheeting variations.

This size of drum liner (18in. x 24in. x 4 mil thick) is a 5 gallon bag.  CAPLINQ also has the following standard sizes available:

Part#                         Dimensions                     Volume
LINQSTAT VCF-41824B    18″ x 24″ x 4mil (thick)           5 gallon
LINQSTAT VCF-42436B    24″ x 36″ x 4mil (thick)           20 gallon
LINQSTAT VCF-43036B    30″ x 36″ x 4mil (thick)           30 gallon

Other sizes and thicknesses may be available for custom requests.

Of course, not subject is complete with talking about pricing.  CAPLINQ generally sells to larger OEM customers, so small volume pricing is less competitive, but once we reach the 500 bag volumes, we start to get competive quickly.  And don’t forget of course that we can supply from both North America (Ottawa, Canada) and Europe (Amsterdam, Netherlands), so you European customers can smile.

CAPLINQ sells these bags of LINQSTAT VCF-41824B / Black conductive bag 18” x 24” x 4 mil for:
Order Quantity: 100 bags – Price USD$221.22/100 bags = USD$221.22 Total
Order Quantity: 500 bags – Price USD$146.85/100 bags = USD$734.25 Total
Order Quantity: 1000 bags – Price USD$132.17/100 bags = USD$1321.70 Total
Order Quantity: 3000 bags – Price USD$117.48/100 bags = USD$3524.40 Total

Please visit us or contact us for more details.

The reason for this is because CAPLINQ took a little too long to fully embrace the power of the internet, and now we’re tripping over ourselves to get things up to snuff.  The few products that are online, you will be able to order right away, and our existing customers will be able to order right online.

These are growing pains, which (as the name implies) means we’re growing.  Things are getting better; service will be better and ultimately, costs will be lower.

What this all means to you, our valued customer is just hang-in there and bear with us during this growth spurt.  You can still order the same products by email or by phone as always, and the internet ordering should be complete by the end of August - stay tuned.

Q1. What does it mean that the LINQSTAT VCF film is unaffected by age and humidity?

A1. This means that regardless of the humidity (up to 100% RH) and over the entire life of the product, there is no change in the volume conductivity of the black tape. This is a property of the tape itself. This means that even submerged underwater, the product maintains its conductivity.

Q2. What does it mean that there is “slow-attack” from Ketones?

A2. Ketones are chemical solvents, namely Acetone and MEK. This means that with constant contact (ie. submerged) there is a degradation of the material over time. This product is not suitable for continuous contact with acetone (ketones).

Q3. What does it mean that there is a “slow-attack” from Alkalines?

A3. An alkaline is a basic product (with pH greater than 7) and is the opposite of an acid (pH less than 7). A “weak” alkaline means the pH is not very far from 7 (ie. 7.2, 7.4) Stronger basic solutions would be higher than this from 7. With direct contact with alkalines, there is an attack of the plastic.

Any many applications, such as the use as an interleaver for smartcards or for the packaging of electronics goods, neither of these points is an issue.

Visit the product page of Linqstat (Velostat Alternative) for technical datasheets, pricelists and more.

What is the compostion of Epoxy Molding Compounds?

There is only a very small percentage of carnauba wax used in the manufacture of epoxy mold compounds used for integrated circuit (IC) and passive device manufacturer. By far, the largest composition of epoxy mold compound by weight is the filler, which accounts for somewhere between 60-90% of the composition.

After this, the epoxy resin and the hardner complete the bulk of the composition accounting for another 15-40%. Finally, catalysts, pigments, flame retardants, low-stress absorbers, adhesion promoters, catalysts, coupling agents and release agents combined making up less than 10% of the total composition. Of this, carnauba wax consists of less than 0.5% of the raw ingredients by weight and its primary function is mold release. To recap, the raw materials, listed in decreasing order of weight % used are:

1. Filler
2. Epoxy Resin
3. Hardner
4. Flame retardants
5. Stress Absorbers
6. Adhesion Promoters
7. Catalyst
8. Pigment
9. Coupling Agent
10. Carnauba Wax used for Mold release

Each of these raw materials has specific functions within the whole of the epoxy molding compound.

Function of Carnauba Wax Mold Release

Carnauba Wax within the Epoxy Mold Compound has two main functions:

• Acting as a flow promoter within the compound itself
• Providing a mold release for the epoxy mold compound in the mold cavity and chase

In an ideal situation, no additional mold release would be required, but as explained in What is the right application for Carnauba Wax Aerosol Spray? there are simply two many non-ideal situations which necessitate additional Carnauba Wax Aerosol Spray. To understand a little more, let’s take a look at how the carnauba wax functions as a mold release agent.

How Carnauba Wax Works as a Mold Release Agent

As can be seen in the first schematic (click on it for larger view), before molding, the carnauba wax , represented by the shark-tooth shaped lines are randomly distributed within the epoxy mold compound matrix.

In the second schematic (again, click on it for larger view), you can see that the carnauba wax when heated escapes to the outside of the matrix, allowing the epoxy mold compound to release from the mold chase inside.

CAPLINQ offers a variety of Carnauba Wax Mold Release Aerosol Sprays. Visit CAPLINQ.com today or ask us how we can help you select the right tape for your application.

Buy in Europe, Pay in US Dollars

For American companies, who are used to paying in US Dollars, the service CAPLINQ offers isn’t particularly valuable. For European customers however, this is a real windfall. These customers can now negotiate and buy consumable materials for use in Europe and pay in USD - truly the best of both worlds.

How can CAPLINQ do this?
CAPLINQ is not a publicly traded company with shareholders needing to be pleased. We control our own costs and negotiate ourselves as much as we can in US Dollars so that we don’t speculate on currency fluctuations. Sure, we have costs in Euros, but not nearly as much fixed overhead as the big guys and because we have locations on both sides of the Atlantic and can shift resources to best utilize our US Dollar prices.

How else can CAPLINQ offer such low prices?
One of the most obvious ways we control costs is through our marketing and sales budgets.We do have sales people that travel to customer sites when necessary, the operative word here being necessary. Our customers work smarter today than at any other time in history; surfing the web, reading blogs, participating in forums and chatting live with potential suppliers.

CAPLINQ embraces this and uses it to reduce costs. We post blogs that customers read instead mailing newsletters that collect in a pile. We provide live updates and news on our products instead of 10,000 copies of a catalog that sits on customers’ shelves. We have live chat boxes so customers get timely answers to their questions, and we add more and more data to our product pages as questions are asked and answers provided.

We strive to put price tags on as many products as we can, so you can comparative shop and come back to us. If you do find prices better than ours, let us know and we’ll try to beat them.

So visit us today as www.caplinq.com and experience the CAPLINQ difference.

The Usual Suspects

Generally speaking, manufacturers use three different adhesive types in combination with the backing material to produce a final “tape” product. Though these adhesive types can be subdivided into subgroups, the main categories are as follows:

1. Silicone
2. Acrylic
3. Rubber

Each of these adhesive types have advantages and disadvantages which make them more or less suitable for particular applications. Here we will draw the major lines outlining these differences.

Silicone adhesives

Silicones have been used to formulate adhesive products for decades due to their flexibility, temperature cycling resistance, chemical resistance, and wide range of possible material properties.

Silicone adhesives have the following general characteristics:

• High flexibility (low modulus) at sub-ambient temperature
• Consistent performance over wide temperature range (a reason they work so well with Polyimide Tapes)
• Excellent ageing and UV resistance (a reason they work so well in LED applications)
• High temperature resistance
• Good resistance to polar solvents

Compared to acrylic and rubber adhesives, they are significantly more expensive, but due to their excellent high temperature performance they are very well suited to splicing tapes, masking tapes and polyimide (Kapton) tapes.

Acrylic Adhesives

Acrylic adhesives can either be water-based (this is also referred to as emulsion or dispersion) or solvent-based. Water-based are slower drying compared to solvent-based systems but generally solvent-based acrylic systems have better resistance to other solvents, chemicals and water. Comparatively, water-based systems are less expensive than their solvent-based counter parts.

Acrylic adhesives are generally divided into two subgroups: Pure and Modified

Pure acrylic
Pure acrylic adhesives share the following characteristics:

• Reasonable adhesion to a wide range of substrates (see modified acrylics below)
• Good ageing, transmittance and UV resistance (a reason they are often used in fiberoptic applications
• Reasonable temperature resistance; between silicones (high resistance) and rubber (low resistance)

Pure acrylics have a lower tack (”stickyness when dry” for the layman) and less adhesion on hard-to-bond plastics such as high- and low-density polyethylene (HDPE & LDPE) and polypropylene (PP) than modified acrylic or rubber adhesives. Pure acrylic adhesives are mainly used on tapes whose applications are bonding, sealing or surface protection.

Modified acrylic
For all intents and purposes, modified acrylics have the same characteristics as pure acrylics, but have superior adhesion to the hard-to-bond-plastics mentioned above. Generally, these are more expensive than pure acrylics and are used for plastic bonding (including vinyl and linoleum), lamination and splicing.

Rubber Adhesives

Just from looking at the roll, it is very hard to tell what type of rubber is used on the tape. Look at the figure to the right, and this same picture can be used to describe every type of rubber-tape below. The key is to ask the supplier what type of rubber adhesive is used. Like acrylics, rubber adhesives can be divided into two subgroups: Natural and Synthetic

Natural rubber
These adhesive have higher tack (again “stickyness when dry” for the layman) than acrylic adhesives as well as higher shear strength but they have limited UV resistance. These are used in the cheapest tapes on the market, but have limited applications. Natural rubber adhesives are used in duct tapes, low-temperature masking tapes and surface protection tapes (think of the tape you get on your new fridge or stove).

Synthetic rubber
As the name implies, synthetic rubber is “formulated rubber” - think coming from the lab, not coming from the tree. Synthetic rubber can broken into three subgroups: Hot-melt, Solvent and Butyl rubber.

Hot-melt rubber

Hot-melt is a low-temperature melting plastic, which makes this adhesive have low temperature resistance. It also ages poorly (becoming brittle) and has low UV resistance. This rubber is used for low- to medium-duty carton sealing, low-temperature splicing as well as paper core starting applications.

Solvent rubber

Solvent-rubber based adhesives have better temperature and aging performance but still poor UV resistance. It is used for electrical and foam tapes.

Butyl rubber

Butyl rubber based tapes have excellent UV and aging resistance but lower mechanical strength. These tapes are used in foam tape applications and construction and plumbing applications such as pipe joints.

Visit CAPLINQ.com today or ask us how we can help you select the right tape for your application.
tapes are mainly used for sealing applications in the building and construction industry. T

A direct equivalent to 3M Velostat (read the article on generic brands here), Linqstat VCF is a very low cost (up to 50% cheaper than 3M Velostat), volume conductive film for EMF shielding.

What’s the difference between volume conductive and just conductive?

Like it’s 3M Velostat equivalent, LINQSTAT VCF is a carbon impregnated black polyethylene film. The carbon impregnation gives it a volume conductivity that fends off EMF, but cannot be used to conduct electricity. Though an electrically conductive medium (such as tin or silver) could also be used for EMF shielding, these materials are many times more expensive and just simply not necessary for EMF Shielding or ESD (electro-static discharge) prevention.

The most cost-effective solution is with LINQSTAT VCF is 72″ wide x 150′ long rolls

The conductivity is not affected by aging or humidity and with a volume resistivity of <500 Ohms/cm and a surface resistivity of <31,000 ohms/cm² (click here for technical datasheet in Adobe PDF) the LINQSTAT VCF is an excellent conductor for a plastic.

How thick is thick enough?

Though the LINQSTAT VCF is available in various thicknesses, the normal thickness of 4mil (100µm or 0.004″) is recommended For extra toughness, heavy duty 8mil (200µm or 0.008″) thickness can be used, but the thickness implies more material which is more expensive, and shipping costs roughly double since the weight of the material is also doubled. If you really want to use 8mil thicknesses in some areas, then we recommend to simply put two layers of 4mil thickness instead. It’s much more cost-effective.

How else can I can it more cost-effective?

Certainly for large covering jobs like EMF shielding a room in your house, you can think of this like EMF wallpaper; the wider the sheets, the better. Standard rolls are available in 36″(0.91 m) width and 72″ (1.83 m) widths. If you’re wondering how the heck you can handle a 72″ wide roll, let me reassure you that these are supplied in what’s known as a V-sheet. A V-sheet is simply a sheet that is 72″ wide folded over on itself. Therefore a 72″ wide roll is actually folded over on itself and supplied as a 36″ wide roll.

Secondly, the length of the roll matters. Standard lengths are 150′ (46m) and 750′ (229 m). Therefore instead of ordering 5 rolls of 150′ length, a single roll of 750′ length will do. To summarize the above information, it is more cost-effective to order a single roll of V-sheet 72″ wide by 750′ long LINQSTAT VCF than to order 10 rolls of 36″ wide by 150′ long rolls.

Where else can it be used?

As discussed here, LINQSTAT VCF can be used to line walls, windows and floors, but because it can be heat-sealed, it is also great for wrapping electrical wires, telephone cords and computer cords too. For these applications, a special tubing version is available.

Contact us or visit us at www.caplinq.com for more information.

Shin-Etsu offer a range of silicone materials suitable for optical fiber coating.

Depending on the equipment and method of polymerization (UV Cure of Heat Cure), different categories of products are available. Refer to the figure below.

Primary Coating Material

For the primary coating, there is one heat-cure product (OF-182), and two UV-cure products (OF-211 and OF-212). These products exhibit specific optical properties as the light (data) travels through this layer. For these applications a refractive index of 1.49 - 1.52 is required and all these products have refractive indices that fall in this range.

Buffer Coating Material

The buffer coating material is used to keep the light (data) within the fiber core and thus requires a material with a much lower refractive index, typically in the 1.41 - 1.44 range. For this application, there are two heat cure products (OF-101 and OF-180) and two UV-cure products (OF-207 and OF-208).

These materials are suitable for normal telecon fibers coated with 400µm - 500µm thicknesses at line speeds of 100 to 500 m/min.

Contact us or visit us at www.caplinq.com today for more information on these or other products.

MJ Gordon #909C puts the wonders of carnauba wax into the simplicity of a spray.

For some reason though, not everyone has discovered MJ Gordon Carnauba Wax Aerosol Spray. This product does what every manufacturer was asking for, to put the wonders of carnauba wax into a can so it could be sprayed. MJ Gordon #909C Carnauba Wax is a non-flammable, RoHS-compliant, solvent-based aerosol spray that puts the wonders of carnauba wax into the simplicity of a spray.

Contact us or visit us at www.caplinq.com today for more information on these or other products.

Each layer has a thickness and the sum of these thicknesses makes up the total tape thickness.

What is often misunderstood by customers is what exactly “1-mil thick” polyimide tape implies. Customers are not sure whether “1-mil” (25µm) thick polyimide tape refers to the polyimide film thickness or the total thickness, since ultimately polyimide tape is made up of both the polyimide film layer plus the silicone adhesive layer (read more about why we believe in silicone-based tapes here).

As can be seen in the photo (click to enlarge), polyimide tape is madeup of two distinct layers:

1. The polyimide (kapton) film layer
2. The adhesive (silicone) layer

Each layer has a thickness and the sum of these thicknesses makes up the total tape thickness.

The Polyimide (Kapton) Film Layer

This is the layer that is specified in the product description. For example, 1-mil tape (referred to as LINQTAPE PIT1 by CAPLINQ) has a polyimide film layer of 1 mil (25µm). Similarly, 2-mil tape has a polyimide film layer of 2 mil (50µm), 3-mil tape has a polyimide film layer of 3 mil (75µm) and so on. This is in fact the layer that determines the thickness used in the description.

The Adhesive (Silicone) Layer

This is the layer of silicone adhesive applied to the backside of the polyimide (kapton) film. Though this layer thickness can vary, the standard average thickness is 1.6 mil (40um). Of course, there is some variation in this adhesive thickness and the thickness can actually range between 35µm - 45µm (1.4 - 1.8 mil) though historical data suggests that the actual range is betweeen 40µm - 45µm (1.6 - 1.8 mil). For all intents and purposes, 1.6 mil (40µm) can be used as the silicone adhesive layer thickness.

Of course, this assumes single sided polyimide (Kapton) tape. Since CAPLINQ also supplies double-sided Polyimide (Kapton) Tape (referred to as LINQTAPE PITD2 by CAPLINQ) this tape would have adhesive layers on both sides of the polyimide film layer in fact doubling the adhesive thickness of the double-side polyimide tape from 1.6 mil (40µm) to 3.2 mil (80µm).

The total thickness is then the sum of these two layers. For example, as can be inferred by the name, LINQTAPE PITD1 is 1-mil double-sided polyimide (kapton) tape that has a polyimide film layer of 1 mil (25µm) and two adhesive layers of 1.6 mil (40µm) each for a total thickness of 4.1 mil (25µm + 40µm + 40µm = 105µm) . Likewise, 1-mil (LINQTAPE PIT1) tape has a total thickness of 2.6 mil (65µm), 2-mil (LINQTAPE PIT2) tape has a total thickness of 3.5 mil (90µm), and so on.

Contact us or visit us at www.caplinq.com today for more information on these or other products.