take a grain of salt when someone tell you water vapor barrier coating or anti-wetting coating. The second type was introduced to prevent water droplets stick to surface - but if you have any impurity, contamination, the surface tension changes (including hard water), you got problem... especially when the temperature goes below zero... it frozen to the surface, regardless wetting (slow warm up will leach some impurity or even coating constituent by long resident time on the surface...). system level hermetic seal would be the best... as for sensing: you can use color indicator (less sensitive) or sensor chips (much better, but pricy...). IMHO. (My knowledge is few years old... you might want to do search and see what the latest/ greatest come up with). by the way, if it is only short time and system level protected well for the limited water vapor intake, (like air craft), polyurethane dip coat usually works not too bad... provided system level - box level done properly - water tight seal (immersion like you pass IP test). jk On Nov 22, 2017, at 10:24 PM, Wayne Thayer wrote: > That is a VERY difficult problem! You'd like the board to be > powered during > this test so you can see how well the coating protected it. Well, > condensation looks simple when your looking at a glass of beer, but > that's > not a good model for a powered-up circuit board! > > I haven't seen attempts to correlate stuff like conformal coat surface > energy vs droplet size, or the multitude of other parameters which > this > would have to contend with. > > The best study I saw was with coated unpopulated boards using a nice > consistent test pattern. These were mounted on a thermal plate at a > well-controlled temperature while voltage was applied (the patterns > were > inter-digitated traces (can't remember if they used vias too, but i > think > not). My recollection is that the setup was placed in a large humidity > chamber maintained at 85% RH (can't go much higher and stay in > control). > > They were able to see differences between the conformal coats they > tried. > But this misses out on all of the other factors due to spray > application of > a highly variant surface. > > Wayne > > On Wed, Nov 22, 2017 at 2:46 PM, Richard Kraszewski < > [log in to unmask]> wrote: > >> Other than what is written in IPC CC830 for thermal shock and MIR >> testing >> , is anyone away of any industry standard that addresses the >> functionality of coating or devices when exposed to condensation? >> >> I have looked at the IP Code for water ingress but all of that water >> testing seems too invasive & harsh for what I am looking for. >> >> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IP_Code >> >> Something in IEC perhaps. >> >> Rich Kraszewski >> Senior Staff Process Engineer >> Plexus Engineering Solutions >> >> >> * * * * * * * * CONFIDENTIALITY NOTICE * * * * * * * * >> >> This e-mail and any attachments are confidential from Plexus Corp. >> and may >> contain information which is privileged, confidential, and/or >> protected by >> non-disclosure agreements. They are intended solely for the use >> of the >> named addressee(s). . Any unauthorized use or disclosure may be >> unlawful. If you are not a named addressee, you must not use, >> disclose, >> retain or reproduce all or any part of the information contained >> in this >> e-mail or any attachments If you have received this transmission >> in error, >> please destroy it and notify us immediately by return e-mail or by >> calling + >> 1 888 208 9005. >>