Like it or not, the world is permeated with man-made electromagnetic interference (EMI). Power cables and signal lines, high speed electronics, antennae and ground connections have tallied up to produce a noisy can negatively affect the day-to-day performance of the sensitive electronics we depend upon daily. Now, add to these factors the raw harshness of the elements year-in and year-out. Salt fog and moisture combined with commonly used enclosure materials such as aluminum and magnesium can make for a challenging combination when coupled with the need for a high performance EMI shielding gasket. You can see how electronic equipment wears down as fast and furiously as it sometimes does, or, worse yet, it may never make it out of the approval process into production due to test failure for these factors.It’s almost obvious that the great outdoors can put a damper on high-tech applications. Vanguard Products Corporation has been working on this challenge for quite some time. Since the 1980’s, we’ve been testing, perfecting, and manufacturing EMI shielding gaskets fitted for rugged terrain and punishing weather, all while providing the highest level shielding performance possible. Our extensive development efforts have yielded two unique approaches to the challenge of dual function EMI/weather sealing gaskets: our dual elastomer ULTRA-VANSHIELD ® gaskets and our newest addition, our dual elastomer MICROBRIDGE® gaskets. Both of these approaches protect against the wind, rain, and moisture all while providing the highest level of EMI shielding available.
A great deal of thought has gone into the design of the ULTRA-VANSHIELD ® and the MICROBRIDGE® products. Each style of shielding gasket features high performance component materials. The ULTRA-VANSHIELD® product features a continuously extruded, high-strength silicone rubber core, and a co-extruded highly conductive metal-filled silicone layer which can be paired galvanically to your enclosure material to reduce galvanic action, and manufactured in a configuration that allows for a non-conductive environmental sealing portion to be oriented outbound to eliminate dust and/or moisture to filter onto the conductive EMI shield or into the electrical components. The MICROBRIDGE® products take this approach even further by incorporating a secondary weatherseal on the interior of the gasket as well, completely isolating the conductive portion from galvanic accelerants. Both approaches allow for all this functionality in a cost effective, single piece package.It’s been a long road from conceptualization to manufacturing these products, but the results speak for themselves with their high performance properties.