June 19, 2013  

What is the G3 Gas Protection Specification in Conformal coating?

The G3 specification references the ANSI Standard, ANSI/ISA S71.04-1985, “Environmental Conditions for Process Measurement and Control Systems: Airborne Contaminants,” .

The G reference refers to the severity and classification of the test and it can be G1 (Mild, Moderate, Harsh and Severe (G1, G2, G3 and Gx, respectively).  The classification directly correlates with the level of corrosive effects in that environment and the standards define or characterise environments in terms of their overall corrosion potential.

Some conformal coatings have been exposed to the test it the different levels and have a pass / fail criteria.

For further information on the different levels of classification, contact us.

About Dr Lee Hitchens

Dr Hitchens has been working in the electronics industry and the area of conformal coatings for over 25 years in various areas including sales and technical support. He has also been training people for almost the same amount of time in all areas of conformal coating whether that is materials & equipment selection, process development or troubleshooting to help them solve their particular problem. Recently, he decided that the industry needed a specific place where all of the useful knowledge on conformal coatings could be collated for users to find easily and use in their own production process. So, Nexus was born and he began the Nexus eBook project.

5 responses to “What is the G3 Gas Protection Specification in Conformal coating?”

  1. vinayak Renake says :

    Acrylic based conformal coating do pases the G 3 tests is there any requirement to test it or certified for this application

    Reply
    • Lee Hitchens says :

      Hello Vinayak

      The standard I believe you are talking about is G3 part of ANSI S71.04
      Standard: ANSI/ISA S71.04-1985, “Environmental Conditions for Process Measurement and Control Systems: Airborne
      Contaminants,”

      For G3 this is defined as G3 Harsh <2000 Å An environment is which there is a high probability that corrosive attack will occur. These harsh levels should prompt further evaluation resulting in environmental controls or specially design and packaged equipment.

      So, if you are asking if you should evaluate the coating and the system then I would suggest yes to prove it can withstand the process. There are acrylic coatings out there that have passed the test. However, although I am not an expert on the test I believe that you are evaluating both the coating and the system so some caution needs to be applied.

      Let me know if I can be of further help.

      Reply
  2. Himanshu Mehta says :

    Where we can test of G3 coating , we want the name of the agency which can test the G3 coating on circuit board

    Reply
  3. Lee Hitchens says :

    Reblogged this on Conformal Coating and commented:

    Also it must be realised that you are qualifying a conformal coating and not the process. The G levels are the severity of the attack and the conformal coating is exposed to this.

    Reply

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