Discontinued GORE gasket materials (GS2100, GS5200, GS8000) have EMI replacements from SSP.
Rubber & Plastics News (RPN) reported how Specialty Silicone Products (SSP) is providing alternatives to discontinued GORE® EMI shielding and increasing production of EMI gasket materials and USP Class VI silicones for the fight against COVID-19. Mike Scott, RPN News Correspondent, covered both stories in the May 4, 2020 edition of this popular trade publication. Click here to download RPN’s full-page spread about Specialty Silicone Products of Ballston Spa, New York (USA).
SSP Offsets for Discontinued GORE EMI Gasket Materials
As RPN reports, W.L. Gore & Associates is discontinuing production of GS2100, GS5200, and GS8000, three well-known materials for EMI shielding, gasketing, and grounding. SSP’s ability to produce thin, low-outgassing, flame-resistant shielding elastomers is now meeting demand for GORE® EMI replacement materials. SSP can make EMI gasketing materials that are 0.010 or 0012 inches thick, meet ASTM 95 outgassing and UL 94 flame resistance requirements, and come with a conductive PSA adhesive.
SSP’s EMI/RFI elastomers include a 40-durometer shielding silicone that is filled with nickel-coated graphite particles and provides UL-94 V1 flame resistance. SSP-502-40-V0/V1 is recommended as a replacement material for GORE® GS2100, a carbon-filled cellular PTFE with 45-durometer hardness that meets UL-94-V0 requirements. (UL-94 V0 flame resistance for SSP-502-40-V0/V1 is pending.)
Another SSP material, SSP-502-60-V0, is a nickel-graphite shielding silicone with a 60-durometer hardness. This EMI gasketing material is recommended as a replacement for GORE® GS5200, a nickel-filled cellular PTFE with a 60-durometer hardness. Like GORE® GS2200, SSP-502-60-V0 meets UL 94 V-0 requirements for flame resistance.
SSP is also supplying two corrosion-resistant shielding elastomers that offer alternatives to discontinued GORE® EMI gasket materials. Both SSP-2529 and SSP-2551 are flame-resistant, very conductive, nickel-aluminum elastomers that have been tested to MIL-DTL-83528. SSP-2529 is a 68-duromer silicone. SSP-2551 is a 72-duromter fluorosilicone.
SSP Supplies Ventilator Seals and EMI Gasket Materials
Specialty Silicone Products (SSP) is also making materials for the EMI gaskets in ventilators, machines that take over the body’s breathing process when a disease like COVID-19 causes the lungs to fail. Given the quantities required, this type of order would normally take 8 to 12 weeks to fulfill. With the urgency of COVID-19, however, SSP will deliver the order to an custom gasket fabricator in about three weeks.
In addition to EMI shielding materials, SSP is supplying molded USP Class VI silicone seals for ventilators. SSP-2390-40, a 40-durometer medical-grade silicone, meets rigorous requirements for cleanliness and purity from both the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the United State Pharmacopeia (USP). USP Class VI requirements are especially stringent and require biocompatibility.
SSP is also making and shipping silicone raw materials for another ventilator application. By providing the molder with a specific “pre-formed” thickness in uncured form, it’s easier to lay the uncured silicone into the mold. In addition, SSP is supplying a USP Class VI silicone, SSP-2390-20, in cured rolls for a personal protective equipment application (PPE) where there’s skin contact.
Get the RPN Article and Contact SSP to Learn More
Click here to download the full-page spread about SSP in the May 4, 2020 edition of Rubber & Plastics New. If you’d additional information about SSP’s replacement materials for GORE® EMI shielding, contact SSP on-line or email Dominic Testo. Additional test data about these materials is pending and will be the subject of a future article.
