Precision Treatment for Electronic Components
✔ Deburr safely
✔ Cut to a specific depth
✔ Remove thin surface layers
✔ Texture to a specific Ra
Micro-precision sandblasting is deceptively simple. Unlike traditional sandblasting, this process uses very fine media, small nozzles, and a consistent abrasive feed to deliver a tool with a laser-beam focus and exacting precision. Clean, strip, texture, etch and deburr delicate surfaces without causing dimensional changes to part geometry.
Precision
The micro-scale of our finishing technology creates a tool with pinpoint precision, ideal for working with electronic components as small as a grain of rice to as large as a basketball. What makes it so precise?
- very fine abrasive (17.5-350 µ)
- small, focused nozzles (0.018-0.125″)
- angled, extended and custom nozzles
- consistent mixture of air and abrasive
Control
Control is at your fingertips! Key variables are adjustable:
- blast pressure
- air and abrasive blend
- nozzle size and type
- abrasive type and size
- working distance from the part
Versatility
Thanks to the wide range of abrasive media available, a micro-precision sandblaster can be a tool that cuts or a tool that textures.
- Cut silicon wafers with aluminum oxide
- Etch epoxy or texture Kapton with sodium bicarbonate
- Texture sapphire with silicon carbide
- Remove coatings with wheat starch or plastic media
What can MicroBlasting do?
Quite a lot. Comco’s technology is used across industries to texture surfaces and remove microns of unwanted material. Learn more about each specific process below.
Surface Texturing
Enhance the adhesion characteristics of a surface for bonding or modify the surface for cosmetic reasons.
Precision Deburring
Remove fine burrs on a wide range of materials from exotic metal alloys to soft polymers.
Selective Cleaning
Remove undesirable substances, thin films or residues from a surface.
Controlled Erosion
Erode the surface a few microns at a time to mill a channel or pocket.
Conformal Coating Removal
Selectively remove conformal coating from printed circuit boards without damage to the board.
Shockless Wafer Cutting
Cut slots, holes, and apertures in thin, fragile substrates.
Flex Circuitry
Delicately texture the surface of rigid and flexible substrate materials to improve the bond, increasing the peel strength of the material when it is attached to other substrates.
Probe Rings and Ceramic Components
Remove oxidation, residue, surface defects and discoloration from alumina substrates, probe rings, electrodes, connectors, and other electronic devices.
Semiconductor Devices
Remove microns of surface material, create a sloped edge, without vibration or micro-cracking.
Wave Guides
Remove fine burrs from edges and openings of complex wave guide components without introducing dimensional changes or radiuses.
Load Cells
Texture components to improve bond adhesion
Thermocouples
Remove magnesium oxide filler without damaging delicate wire conductors.
Wire Texturing
Get 360° of uniform coverage and texture to a sharp delineation on wires, rods, and tubes.
Conformal Coating Removal
Compare conformal coating removal with micro-precision sandblasting to other removal methods. Learn how to select an abrasive for your specific board. Review the features of the ProCenter Plus™ with ESD Control, our workstation designed for static sensitive applications. And more.
Contamination Removal from Set-Top PC Boards
Learn what abrasive and blast parameters provide a fast, environmentally friendly, and cost‐effective solution for cleaning PC boards. MicroBlasting can remove contamination without causing damage to the board circuitry.
Decapping ICs
Delicate silicon dies are encapsulated in epoxy to protect them. This becomes a problem when extracting the silicon die for failure analysis or reverse engineering. When using MicroBlasting, decapping an integrated circuit is safer, easier and more environmentally friendly than other methods.
The Manual System
Get a precise and repeatable finish with the Manual System.
The AccuFlo® is the latest MicroBlaster in our line, and it is such a breakthrough in engineering that we had to give it its own name. Evolving out of 50 years of MicroBlasting design and development, the AccuFlo is faster, more precise and more efficient.
The ProCenter Plus™ is a chair-height workstation with integrated dust collection. Together, these two components form a complete and turnkey MicroBlasting solution that is durable, easy to use, and easy to maintain.
Automated Systems
Processing a large volume of parts? Need more throughput than a manual system can provide? For more than 45 years Comco’s engineers have integrated up to four axes of motion, multiple nozzles, conveyors, and powerful blasters into automated equipment. Comco automated MicroBlasting systems deliver all the benefits of our manual systems but with greater precision and efficiency for heavy production environments. Both the Advanced Lathe and the JetCenter are designed for the steady processing of precision parts. Each automated system is customizable from a proven platform and delivered as a turnkey solution.
Send us a Sample Part
Many factors contribute to the removal process, but the best way to find out if MicroBlasting is the ideal solution for your challenge is to test a sample part. Our Applications Engineers have the tools on-hand to test different variables, and they have the experience to know where to begin. All test procedures and results are documented in a full lab report returned to you alongside the tested sample parts for evaluation.
Check out our blog entry “We Take Samples Seriously” to learn more about the testing process, and contact a Comco Sales Team member to schedule a sample part test.
