How to remove clear conformal coating?

[PhotonWrangler]

I have a personal gadget that I need to troubleshoot and the whole board was dipped in some sort of hard, clear conformal coating at the factory. This is making it impossible for me to get my DMM probes in contact with the components. The coating is pretty hard, completely clear and really, really tough to scratch off. Don't know if the material is urethane or something else, but I'm looking for tips on solvents I can try. The coating is maybe 1to 2 mm thick in spots.

Any thoughts?

 

[SmurfTacular]

Have you tried acetone? Also, I found that the arctic silver epoxy remover can be used in some applications to remove other types of glue.

 

[jtr1962]

Lacquer thinner works on some types of conformal coatings. Methylene chloride (the active ingredient in many paint strippers ) should work also although you'll need to rinse it off thoroughly. It's nasty stuff. Burns like hell if you get it on your skin.

 

[PhotonWrangler]

Thanks for the tips, Smurf and JTR. I will give those a try. With gloves and ventilation of course.

 

[Steve K]

it depends very much on the conformal coat. I've been able to use rubbing alcohol in a lot of cases. Use nastier solvents as appropriate.

Steve K.

 

[Steve K]

I skipped over the part about urethane... when dealing with urethane potting material, it can help a lot to warm the board up to 85C. This will soften the potting enough that a pointy tool can remove some of it. Be careful that you don't damage the components, though (I try to stick with softer tools, like a piece of wood or plastic whittled to a point).

Steve K.