new england based appli-tec has more than 28 years as a leading provider of adhesives, sealants and encapsulants to the aerospace, computer, defense, microelectronic, industrial and medical industries.   many of their customers are in the fortune 500. their research and development and manufacturing facilities are located in salem nh.  

appli-tec has recently released a new material, appli-thane™ 7300.  the new material has a number of unique thermal properties and an interesting story behind its development. coolingzone’s  editor, john o’day, had a chance to catch up with appli-tec’s tim walsh to learn more about the thermal conductive appli-thane™ 7300.

coolingzone: tim thanks for joining us on coolingzone to talk about appli-tec and appli-thane™ 7300. 

tim walsh: your welcome john, it’s our pleasure.  we are really excited about bringing this product out and the technology advantage it brings to many applications that need it.

coolingzone:  so tim, can you tell our readers a little about appli-tec.   from what i read on your web site, http://www.appli-tec.com, you manufacture in the u.s. and have r&d there as well?

tim walsh:  that’s right john, appli-tec has both r&d and manufacturing in salem, nh.  our company was founded in 1983 by tom walsh.  tom had worked at both chomerics and ge’s silicon products group.   the focus of our company is really about four key areas: full service adhesive packaging, custom material development, impeccable quality (appli-tec is an iso-9001 company), and that our employees are our greatest resource.

coolingzone:  what prompted the development of appli-thane™ 7300?  was it a customer requirement, rfq, market need, or even hunch that this was an important technology?
tim walsh:  appli-thane™ 7300 was really customer driven to answer a specific question: how to reduce cost and weight within a constrained space for a defense product application.  the goal was to develop a unique adhesive material to substantially improve thermal conductivity efficiency, allowing for the removal of heat sinks from the product.  our professional experience told us the solution would require very light weight material with incredible range of properties. we considered areas we could impact such as reduction in size of the pcb board, smaller fit, smaller housing.   reduction in almost everything, which of course included cost.   in engineering the solution, we took a look within materials science to see if there might be something we could leverage.  but we found nothing that was flowable, highly thermally conductive, long pot life with room temperature cure, and with a low modulus.   so we started working in our lab to develop one.  typically you have a series of tradeoffs to reach the optimal feature set given a design’s constraints and we had many factors  to consider.

coolingzone: why did you design to the astm e595 nasa outgassing requirements?   is it due to applications where you feel appli-thane™  7300 may be used most commonly? 
tim walsh :  the requirement was that it be as clean as possible and we had a good deal of experience designing to these standards already.  i’d say 99% of the products we develop meet that requirement.  in this application though, the low outgassing was critical in order to insure that there was no potential contamination of the very sensitive devices in this application.


coolingzone:  the specifications for appli-thane™ 7300 are extraordinary and our readers have a special interest in the thermal transfer properties of such materials, particularly given the extreme operating range you have.   the thermal conductivity (w/m°k) of 2.5 is exceptional.  can you comment on the thermal resistance of appli-thane™  7300? 

tim walsh:  in applications, we expect our customer and others will see very low thermal resistance.  likely better than 0.5 degree c per watt.


coolingzone: actual application of materials on the manufacturing line can add or reduce cost of labor based on how easy or hard it is to set up for and then apply the material.   you note that appli-thane™ 7300 is injectable.  can you tell our readers a bit more on the actual application of appli-thane™ 7300 on the manufacturing line?
tim walsh: sure john. from the start of this project, our challenge was to consider how such materials could be usable on the manufacturing floor.  for that you need something with a long pot life; a few hours minimum.  the design point of current materials similar to appli-thane™ 7300 has been that they react and build viscosity very quickly.  appli-thane™ 7300 was designed to have a much longer working pot life, enabling customers to use automatic dispensing robots or manual dispensing. the combination of long pot life and a reasonable cure temperature provides the best of both worlds to engineers and end users. appli-thane™  is also  injectable and  free flowing but by no means liquid.  when applied, the material stays where you put it, and when cured is “low modulus” meaning somewhat flexible.   if you had to encapsulate appli-thane™ 7300, you can inject it and it can fill in the spaces.  its physical properties enable it to be used as a gap filler, similar to a potting material.  the cure profiles of appli-thane™ 7300 can vary to meet many applications.   


coolingzone:  can you give our readers some target technical applications you think appli-thane™  7300 would fit best?

tim walsh: heat sink bonding, power inverter applications, motor heat dissipation; solar inverters, potting applications (sub component or connector). it is an ideal material for any application where highly efficient thermal transfer is of value. appli-thane™  7300’s characteristics include being low modulus, meaning flexible and not brittle as most epoxy systems are today.  as components are thermally cycled the material will stay somewhat soft, which allows this material to accommodates cte mismatches where other materials available today do not.

coolingzone:  tim, every r&d project has its own story.  can you give us any one particular highlight of the project while developing appli-thane™  7300, the "aha" moment where you knew you had something special in your lab?
tim walsh: our engineers enjoy solving problems and creating technical solutions for customer and market challenges.  our goal is to methodically solve each problem then move onto the next challenge.  but two points do stand out.  one key objective was to achieve the filler loading required to reach 2.5 w/m°k, but still have a flowable product.  appli-thane™ 7300 is a true flowable material that is useful, easy to apply, has a long pot life, and has exceptionally high thermal conductivity. 

the team’s other key objective was to constantly keep in mind the fact that this (or any of appli-tec’s materials) are designed for the engineer specifying the materials.  that engineer is thinking:  “how do i know this will be a consistent material, from week to week or month to month”.   our engineers kept that important thought in mind, making appli-thane™ 7300 as versatile and engineering friendly as possible, while minimizing process variability. 

coolingzone:  tim, thanks for taking the time out to give our readers’ the back story on appli-thane™  7300™ and good luck with it and your other upcoming projects.

tim walsh: thanks john, we appreciate the time to talk about it.