Conductive Paint Lessons

From Noisebridge
Revision as of 17:58, 23 November 2010 by Abenaqadat (talk | contribs)
Jump to navigation Jump to search


Page Is Unavailable Due To Site Maintenance, Please Visit Reserve Copy Page


CLICK HERE


Lessons on Conductive Paint

Related to Pulse Choker Hack Notes for July 15th, 2009:

"We tried silk screening silver conductive paint (MG Chemicals 842-20G) onto two different types of fabric, a water resistant one and a water proof "leather like" one. Both showed very high resistance (higher than the meter can read) even for very short thick traces. It looks really cool though - hopefully we can figure out what we're doing wrong, and make this work. We also tried measuring the resistance of a huge dollop of paint on the spoon: silver = infinite resistance (!), copper = 200kOhms. It didn't matter if the paint was dried or wet. Note that we shook the bottle prior to use to ensure that the silver particles were dispersed evenly."

Types of Conductive Paint


  • Transparent paint
    • Orgacon from Agfa - conductive, can be flexed, transparent, can be silk-screened


  • Alternatives
    • Wire glue - $4 for 0.3 oz
    • Conductive pen

Heeds

  • Shake paint well to ensure metal particles are well dispersed. Better yet, stir it a lot!
  • Keep ink wet while working with it. If work time is protracted, mix paint frequently
  • Resistivity measures are suppose to be accurate only when paint has fully dried
  • Some paints are more dilute than others. One guy used silver paint, which bled beyond his mask (accelenation.com).

Uses

  • Auto repair
    • It may be cheaper to purchase conductive paint as the rear window defogger paint at the auto store. I haven't done so. Most defoggers use copper paint.
  • Microscopy, i.e. scanning electron microscopy (SEM)
    • Companies specializing in SEM equipment note that some paints particularly plantinum may need to be placed in an ultrasonic bath for a few minutes (SPI Supplies)
    • Microscopy often utilizes different concentrations of metal particles in conductive paint, so these websites can provide you with a gradient of resistivity in their inventory of paints. M.E. Taylor's SEMicro division has three concentrations of silver paint: 18%, 36%, and 50% Ag.
  • Art
    • Paper Circuits by Leah Buckley: conductive paint, magnetic paint, magnets
    • Paper printed circuit board by Peter Blasser