{"id":9354,"date":"2020-09-29T05:57:48","date_gmt":"2020-09-29T11:57:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/fallows.ca\/wp\/?p=9354"},"modified":"2020-09-26T09:44:03","modified_gmt":"2020-09-26T15:44:03","slug":"emi-rfi-shield-plastic-boxes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/fallows.ca\/wp\/projects\/electronics-projects\/emi-rfi-shield-plastic-boxes\/","title":{"rendered":"EMI\/RFI Shield Plastic Boxes"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"shield<\/a><\/p>\n

MG Chemicals provides various conductive coatings. You can use these to shield plastic boxes for your electronics projects. <\/p>\n

As you know, I 3D print lots of plastic boxes to hold my electronics projects. I have never been into metal working. Designing and creating a plastic box is much easier for me than nibbling away at an aluminum box, and much cheaper.<\/p>\n

But plastic is basically invisible to electronic and radio interference. We get no shielding at all from a plastic container. Up until now, I have used thin aluminum tape<\/a> to shield plastic boxes. You will find this works pretty well, as long as you carefully wrap the seams together to ensure mechanical continuity.<\/p>\n

For some time now, I have wanted to try a conductive paint. So, I took the plunge and bought some MG Chemicals 841AR Nickel Conductive Coating<\/a> in an aerosol can from Amazon. This cost me about CDN $42 but should last me for many projects.<\/p>\n

A word of warning: this is strong stuff. You will find it contains a lot of volatile organic compounds (VOC) and must be used in a well ventilated area. I did my spray work in the garage with doors all open. Also, I wore a mask, protective gloves and eye coverings. Strong smell for a while and takes 24 hours to cure at normal room temperature. I found that two coats an hour apart did the job and it was easy to get good coverage.<\/p>\n

The 841AR data sheet<\/a> indicates it will bond well to shield plastic boxes. It seems to chemically etch and adhere to ABS. I used it with PETG without problems, at least so far. We will see how it holds up over time. I have tried spraying either the outside or inside of a plastic box, and I think my preference is inside, as shown above.<\/p>\n

Shield Plastic Boxes – Does It Work?<\/h2>\n

My tests have been minimal so far. The data sheet indicates I should get > 70 dB of shielding up to 1 MHz and more than 40 dB through HF, which are my frequencies of interest. This is much less than the 70 to 100 dB shielding from aluminum panel, but obviously a ton more than plastic, which is zero.<\/p>\n

You can test the surface for continuity and resistance with a VOM after you spray. Over a short distance, I get around 0.2 \u03a9 with aluminum panel or tape, and around 0.8 \u03a9 with the 841AR. I could probably bring this down if I added more coats to increase thickness.<\/p>\n

Even without more serious tests, I can tell that this approach to shield plastic boxes reduces ingress of RFI in the shack. You can read more about these conductive paints here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MG Chemicals provides various conductive coatings. You can use these to shield plastic boxes for your electronics projects.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"EMI\/RFI Shield Plastic Boxes #3Dprint #RFI","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[13,5],"tags":[18,57],"series":[],"class_list":["post-9354","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-3d-printer","category-electronics-projects","tag-3d-print","tag-rfi"],"yoast_head":"\nEMI\/RFI Shield Plastic Boxes - Living On The Horizon<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"MG Chemicals provides various conductive coatings. 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