Mask and Stencil Fabrication Services Information
Mask and stencil fabrication services make custom metal, plastic, fiberglass, fluoropolymer or elastomer masks that fit over areas or a part for masking purposes, which allows patterned coating, printed designs and lettering for part identification, decoration or function. Businesses can be employed to custom prepare masks and stencils according to the application requirements.
How Masks and Stencils Work
Masks are used to selectively coat specific surface regions on a part and to prevent the accumulation of the coating from unwanted areas. Sometimes coating masks can be reused if the process is coating uniform parts and the mask's integrity is retained.
Stencils work in a similar manner, except are used to concentrate the coating in a particular form. Marking equipment is used to mark or engrave products and packages with bar codes, lot codes, date stamps, graphics, labels, and other information. Stencils are usually reusable as long as they remain intact after use.
Specifications
Mask and stencil materials typcially include, plastic, rubber, elastomer, metal, fiberglass cloth, fluoropolymer, and fluoropolymer coated fiberglass. The material chosen will depend on the application. A high temperature thermal spraying of a fluoropolymer-coated fiberglass might be appropriatewhile for epoxy painting, a low temperature, solvent-resistant elastomer film could be sufficient.
Masks
Masks can be applied to complex shapes and contoured surfaces, and can protect key areas of printed circuit boards during wave soldering and chemical bath processing. Rubber masks are also used in selective abrasive or sandblasting and surface treatment applications to allow selective frosting of glass, metal or other materials. Other masking products include caps, plugs, and die-cut tapes. Caps fit over rods, tubes and stems. Plugs protect threaded holes, non-threaded holes and slotted holes. Physical dimensions for caps include inside diameter, wall thickness, and length. Specifications for plugs include size, top diameter, bottom diameter, and length. Specifications for tapes include width, and custom die-cut tapes. In terms of features, painting masks can be resistant to UV degradation, flame, moisture and many chemicals. Plating masks often have good heat resistance.
Stencils
Stenciling can be used repeatedly and rapidly to produce conforming designs across media. Stencils can be used on three dimensional and layered objects as well. Stencils are used frequently in signs and road markers. A temporary adhesive can be applied to some stencils to maintain position while in use. Since stencils amass excessive spray, thick sprays like powder coating will destroy paper and less rigid stencils. Scaling of the stencil is important and is usually customizable through the manufacturer.
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