MIL-DTL-83528 EMI Gasket Materials from SSP

Defense contractors need military gaskets that conduct electricity, resist electromagnetic interference (EMI) or radio frequency interference (RFI), and provide environmental sealing. Particle-filled silicones can meet project requirements, and also comply with MIL-DTL-83528, a U.S. military specification (MIL-SPEC) for electrically-conductive elastomeric shielding gaskets used in EMI and RFI suppression.

MIL-DTL-83528 Gasket Materials

Specialty Silicone Products (SSP) supplies MIL-SPEC materials that meet the requirements of MIL-DTL-83528. These particle-filled elastomers don’t just provide electrical conductivity, EMI or RFI shielding, and environmental sealing. SSP’s MIL-SPEC materials meet gasket fabricators’ requirements for EMI materials that support die cutting, water jet cutting, molding, and the use of adhesives.

Importantly, SSP’s MIL-DTL-83528 materials also meet defense contractor requirements for cost-effective EMI shielding. Traditionally, MIL-SPEC elastomers for EMI gaskets were limited to higher-cost conductive fills such as pure silver. These EMI shielding materials carried expensive minimum order quantities (MOQs), and could be difficult to process because they were available only as harder (higher durometer) materials.

Cost, Quality, and Military Gaskets

SSP’s conductive elastomers for MIL-SPEC gaskets are available in a variety of fill materials, including silver-plated metal particles, and can be supplied in low-to-medium MOQs. Softer (lower durometer) gasket materials are available, and the binder consists of either silicone or fluorosilicone. Now less expensive, fluorosilicone may be required in some military or aerospace applications where there’s exposure to fuels.

Specialty Silicone Products performs full certifications for every batch of its material and maintains a full testing laboratory at its Ballston Spa, New York facility. For gasket fabricators, this can mean shorter lead times since SSP’s conductive elastomers are both produced and tested in-house. Several of SSP’s MIL-DTL-83528 materials also have a qualified product listing (QPL) from the Defense Logistics Agency (DLA)