BEST HeatShield Gel™ is a thermal shield water-based gel designed to be used in the PCB rework/repair or board assembly areas in order to provide thermal protection of electronic components. It is truly a revolutionary means to protect components. It keeps components from being exposed to full reflow cycle temperatures, thereby reducing their potential thermal damage. Protect components such as plastic connectors, heat-sensitive ceramic capacitors or even batteries.   In addition, the materials’ shielding prevents neighboring devices from cracking, discoloring or warping. This material prevents solder joints on protected devices from growing too thick of intermetallic layers which could impact solder joint reliability. The shielding action of the BEST HeatShield Gel™ also prevent underfills from being reflowed on neighboring devices. Once it is applied to the PCB it acts as a heat sink and is simply washed off with water after use.

One of the other beneficial attributes of this material is its flexibility and ease of use. Simply scoop out some of the gel material from the container. Apply it liberally to the parts requiring protection in the vicinity (not on the part being reflowed or it will not go in to reflow) Perform your rework or assembly operation. Clean the gel and surrounding area using DI water and a soft brush or run it through your wash machine cycle using a water only cleaning process. The gel is water soluble and harmless to PCBs as long as it is washed off.

It has many advantages over Kapton™ tapes or aluminum shields commonly used as heat shield materials such as:

     It is highly flexible to be used on boards with tightly-spaced components without having to do any cutting or modification

     It is the more effective than Kapton™ tape by a factor of 4X (See test report of various material shielding effectiveness here)!

     It has shown (see cleanliness test report here!) to be innocuous to the PCB through thorough ionic cleanliness testing assuring you that when cleaned up properly the reliability of the board will not be impacted by using this product

The material is a single use water soluble clay-based, environmentally-safe formulation. It is non-flammable, non-toxic and does not have any corrosive properties. MSDS is here. The SDS is here.

It is designed to stop heat from traveling through most metals. It will help prevent distortion to metals & plastics caused by the heat.

This is a 4 ounce jar and has a 2 year shelf life.