LINQSTAT Electrically Conductive Plastic Film gets Tighter Specifications

As with most product lines, our LINQSTAT line of electrically conductive plastic films has grown so much that it has outgrown its original purpose. Originally designed to be a line of antistatic products, customers starting asking us more and more if we could increase the conductivity of the plastic to make it more conductive. This meant that the product (though remaining antistatic) filled more of the role of an electrically conductive plastic film.

Some VCF-Series products have been reclassified as MVCF-Series, and new products have been introduced in the VCF-, MVCF, and XVCF-Series.

The need for more electrically conductive plastic films

Originally designed for antistatic packaging, CAPLINQ has further developed its line of LINQSTAT electrically conductive plastic films to truly be electrically conductive. Heavily-loaded plastic films compete with other technologies that CAPLINQ offers such as graphitized carbon paper and panels, and Activated Carbon Fabric which are used primarily for gas diffusion layers for fuel cells and electrolyzers.

The advantage of the electrically conductive plastic film in this case is that they are available on rolls and are not brittle (like the carbon paper and panels), and they are very thin and contain the carbon within the medium (as opposed to the activated carbon fabric). Furthermore, they are quite cost-effective, making them attractive for electrolyzer applications looking to replace expensive current collector parts.

Reclassification of LINQSTAT Electrically Conductive Plastic Films

As mention above, in many cases, there is no change at all to the old LINQSTAT VCF-Series products. For example, the old product VCF-80036S/2 had a surface resistivity value of <200,000 ohms/square which is a very wide specification. As we started getting into more specific applications, customers started requesting tighter conductivity tolerances to meet more demanding applications. As a results, we split our VCF-Series business into three groups:

1. LINQSTAT VCF-Series: Our low-level electrically conductive plastic film with a surface resistivity from 50,000 – 200,000 ohms/square
2. LINQSTAT MVCF-Series: Our medium-level electrically conductive plastic film with a surface resistivity from 1,000 – 50,000 ohms/square
3. LINQSTAT XVCF-Series: Our high-level electrically conductive plastic film with a surface resistivity from 1 – 1,000 ohms/square

The VCF-80036S/2 already was a more conductive product, and so the change in name reflects only a repositioning of its properties, but no change chemically to the product itself.

CAPLINQ is a specialty plastics supplier offering a range of conductive materials including our broad range of electrically conductive plastics and antistatic tapes and films. If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to contact us to find out how we can help you further.