Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/1424540
56 SMT007 MAGAZINE I NOVEMBER 2021 and is less abrasive on dispensing equipment than previous gen- erations of material have been. ose are the main features of the products. J o h n s o n : How is that thermal gap filler applied? Kinner: Typically, it's a two-com- ponent material. It will be dis- pensed with a robotic dispens- ing system, but it's also available in side-by-side cartridges for manual applications if required. Johnson: With the new coating, is the goal to have better performance, with the added ben- efit to customers of making your entire sup- ply chain green and bio-friendly? How did that come to be? Kinner: Yes. We do a lot of work looking at harsh environments testing. We have been do- ing a lot of work with the National Physical Laboratory in England, particularly in conden- sation testing. We did pretty well compared to our peers, but one of the things that stood out was we knew we could do better. at really set us in the direction of, "Here's the problem. How do we get better perfor- mance?" In listening to customers, we learned that UV curing is always of interest because it helps with single piece flow, minimizes en- ergy consumption, and speeds up time to handling, which are always good things. So, we set about making a material that would answer those fundamental issues. e performance was driven by the end application. Internally, we had decided to test a lot of renewable raw materials. We know that performance is okay or better than some of the petroleum-derived alternatives, so whenever we can, our inten- tion is to use renewably sourced materials. Our "How can we deliver better perfor- mance?" project came together. We can make it UV-curable, and we can get a high degree of bio-renewable materials into the system. As far as the ques- tion about certified organic, for one of the raw materials, we are relying on information from our supplier. We've seen data that shows the percentage of car- bon-14, and from that you can calculate how much of it really is renewable. One of the other raw materials must be from an organic source. ere's no other way of getting it. Johnson: at one's easy. Kinner: Yes. We did our best to fact check the supply chain and we have that data available for anyone who is interested in it; not that peo- ple wouldn't believe us. Johnson: At the same time, you've mentioned that the performance is better. Were you pri- marily driven to get a green coating because of a customer specification or was it the drive for improved performance? Kinner: It was by design, and we knew that we could do it. It's a win in both regards. If you're just interested in performance, this material has it in abundance. If you want the green as- pect, then that's there too. I've yet to see any- one request it, but that's been our history. We tend not to wait until customers ask for things before we make them available. With all the geopolitics that we've seen during the pan- demic, the recent fires in California, Europe, Australia and other places, the media has been highlighting climate change. If there's an op- portunity to use bio-renewable sources, then why wouldn't you? If you can get the perfor- mance, why wouldn't you do it? Johnson: What has been the customer reaction to the renewable and green characteristics of this new product? Phil Kinner