Application
Consumer electronics and optics
Fingerprints do not stick
The situation
Touch surfaces, display covers, camera windows, appliance panels and housings where the complaint is fingerprints, smudges and the effort of cleaning them. The part is visible, so any change in appearance is a defect.
What fails today
- Fluorinated spray coatings wear through where the thumb goes and the smear comes back within weeks.
- A film that lowers the water angle but not the oil angle still shows fingerprints, because the fingerprint is oil.
- Thick films on a display produce a colour shift.
- Processes that cure incompletely leave an oily residue that attracts dust.
Grades for this duty
SF-CB0031
The hard one: 8–9H and an 85–90 % ceramic yield for glass
SF-NF4401
13–15 % fluorine, the entry grade for release and repellency
SF-NF4402
28–30 % fluorine in the trifluoropropyl chain
SF-NF4403
22–25 % fluorine, already at 105–110°
SF-NF4404
Long-chain fluorinated, 38–40 % fluorine
SF-NF4405
The highest fluorine load we make: 55–60 %
SF-NF4406
48–50 % fluorine, long-chain chemistry
How to apply it
Cure in an oven: this series does not cure at room temperature.
Keep the film thin; the optical result degrades before the repellency does.
Handle with gloves and clean tools: a fingerprint under the film is permanent.
Measure the angle after abrasion, not only on the fresh film.
How to qualify it
- Contact angle with water and with a standard oil, to ASTM D7334, fixed drop and fixed read time.
- Abrasion cycles under a defined load, with the contact angle measured after: the angle that matters is the one after 5,000 wipes.
- Haze and transmission after coating.
- Chemical resistance against the solvents in screen cleaners and hand cream.
Bring your substrate and your target; we quote a grade and a cure schedule against it.
Next step