Key points of the article
- The protection of electronic boards is a critical requirement in aerospace electronics, where vibrations, thermal shocks, and contamination can compromise systems.
- Conformal coating for electronic boards represents the reference engineering solution, creating a barrier against moisture and dust and improving the dielectric strength of PCBs.
- The collaboration between Skyward Experimental Rocketry and Mascherpa demonstrates how research and industry can converge, with concrete solutions applied in real aerospace contexts.
- Electrolube AFA ensures speed, safety, and international certifications, while DOWSIL™ 744 offers mechanical resistance and versatility in extreme environments.
- Investing in certified coatings and sealants allows extending the useful life of PCBs, reducing failures and maintenance costs, and ensuring reliability even after multiple missions.
In the world of aerospace electronics, the protection of printed circuit boards represents an essential requirement to ensure the full functionality of systems even in extreme environments. This is not a secondary detail: when an aerospace mission or an experimental prototype is launched, the margins for error are practically zero. Electronic boards must withstand vibrations, thermal shocks, dust and moisture contamination, without compromising the overall performance of the system.
In this context, conformal coating for electronic boards represents the reference engineering solution to ensure reliability and durability over time. The ability of these protective coatings to create a barrier against external agents and improve the dielectric strength of PCBs is what makes the difference between the success and failure of a mission.
The collaboration between Skyward Experimental Rocketry, a student association of the Politecnico di Milano, and Mascherpa within the NEXT initiative is an emblematic case of how research, training, and industrial application can converge. This project we have carried out concretely demonstrates how the right materials can have a decisive impact on electronic performance in real aerospace contexts.
The Challenge of Electronics in Sounding Rockets
Skyward Experimental Rocketry was founded in 2012 with the aim of designing and building high-tech sounding rockets to be launched in international competitions such as the European Rocketry Challenge (EuRoC). In 2024, the team won the European champion title for the second time in five years, a recognition resulting from engineering quality and attention to detail.
The operating conditions, however, are anything but simple. The rockets are prepared and maintained for hours in military training fields, exposed to sun, rain, dust, and thermal shocks. It is in these situations that aerospace electronic protection assumes a decisive role. Without an adequate coating system, the reliability of electronic subsystems would be compromised even before launch.
Further complicating the picture is Skyward’s sustainable choice to adopt a modular electronic system. The same boards are reused in multiple missions, interchanging modules between subsystems or adapting them to different motherboards. This sustainable approach reduces waste of materials and resources, but increases the need for long-term protection: a conformal coating must ensure continuity of performance even after multiple use cycles.
Mascherpa and Skyward: a Shared Approach
To address these challenges, Skyward chose Mascherpa as a technical partner in the selection and application of protective coatings. The expertise gained in decades of collaboration with the electronics and aerospace industry has made it possible to identify specific materials capable of combining protection, reliability, and ease of use.
Two products have proven particularly effective:
- Electrolube AFA, a high-performance acrylic conformal coating.
- DOWSIL™ 744, a versatile and resistant silicone sealant.
Both solutions are already widely used in the industrial and aerospace sectors, and integrate perfectly into a project like Skyward’s, where robustness and rapid development times are fundamental.
Electrolube AFA: Performance and Speed
The conformal coating on PCB Electrolube AFA was chosen as the main coating for the sounding rocket’s electronic boards. Its technical characteristics make it ideal in experimental and industrial contexts:
- Protective barrier against moisture and dust, critical factors in outdoor environments.
- Quick drying in 5 – 10 minutes, a competitive advantage for projects with tight timelines.
- Absence of aromatic solvents (such as toluene and xylene), with a positive impact on operator safety and compliance with aerospace standards.
- Dielectric strength of 45 kV/mm, particularly useful for boards with high component density.
- UL94 V0 and UL746 certifications, making it suitable for electronic systems intended to operate in critical conditions.
An additional advantage is represented by the availability of different formats: from the classic spray, suitable for laboratories and small series, to systems for automated application, which ensure uniformity and constant quality on a large scale. This flexibility allows the use of the same product in both experimental settings and complex production lines.
DOWSIL™ 744: the Contribution of Silicone
Alongside the conformal coating, Mascherpa proposed the use of the silicone adhesive sealant DOWSIL™ 744. This material, widely tested in high-performance sectors, guarantees complementary mechanical and environmental protection to electronic boards.
Its main characteristics are:
- Thermal resistance from – 45 °C to +200 °C, making it suitable for missions subject to strong temperature fluctuations.
- Elasticity greater than 500%, capable of absorbing vibrations and thermal stress without compromising the integrity of the fastening.
- Excellent adhesion to metal substrates, such as aluminum, a useful feature for semi-structural applications.
- Hardness less than 40 Shore A, which allows it to be used as a damping element for tall or sensitive components.
- Simple application, both manual and automated, with great adaptability to production processes.
Thanks to these properties, DOWSIL™ 744 stands as a robust and versatile solution to ensure mechanical resistance and reliability to electronic boards in dynamic contexts.
Conformal Coating for Electronic Boards: Long-Term Reliability
Skyward’s experience highlights a fundamental aspect: the protection of electronic boards not only serves to prevent immediate failures, but also allows extending the life cycle of PCBs, reducing replacement and maintenance costs.
The use of conformal coating for electronic boards, combined with silicone sealants, allows:
- reducing the risk of short circuits due to humidity and condensation;
- preventing corrosion of contacts;
- absorbing vibrations and mechanical shocks;
- increasing overall reliability of electronic systems;
- enabling the reuse of boards in multiple missions.
In a competitive sector like aerospace, where operating conditions are among the most difficult, investing in certified and proven solutions for aerospace electronic protection represents a strategic choice.
Conclusion
The case of Skyward Experimental Rocketry highlights how the success of an aerospace project depends not only on the quality of the design or the efficiency of propulsion, but also on the protection of electronic boards. The adoption of solutions such as Electrolube AFA and DOWSIL™ 744, proposed by Mascherpa, allows facing extreme conditions without compromising functionality and safety.
Contact Mascherpa experts to receive personalized advice and discover the most suitable solutions for your aerospace electronics projects or for the most complex applications in your reference sectors.
