Why Platinum Eternal Quality Coating?

The development of a coating suitable for the combined requirements of high accuracy, high stability, and small size resulted in a new multilayer coating called Platinum EQC. It was implemented in our products in 2010 with excellent results. Compared to old gold coatings, the properties of Platinum EQC results in versatility, and the enhancement allows sensors to be even better suited in some areas of application, such as:

• Indoor swimming pool facilities
• Greenhouses
• Highly polluted environments
• Incubators

The new coating Platinum EQC, shown in blue to the right, survived a corrosive gas test and a climate test better than old gold coatings as measured from IR signal decrease

The testing period and gas concentration, compared to Swedish threshold limits, correspond to an exposure time of Ammonia: 290 days, Hydrogen peroxide: 37 years, Ozone: 104 days.

Platinum EQC Testing

The coating has been through extensive testing, exposing our mirrors to ozone, hydrogen peroxide and ammonia in different setups. Tests included:

• Accelerated climate testing; temperature and humidity cycling
• Temperature shock tests
• Accelerated testing in corrosive gases, typical in polluted air
• Glueing properties and coating hardness
• Microscopy, including Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM)
• Infra-red spectroscopy, 2 – 11 µm
• Alkaline and acidic testing
• IR signal measurements in dry zero-gas
• Dust test
• Fogging chemical exposure

Key Benefits of Platinum EQC: 

• Enhanced stability during storage 
• Less ageing effect than gold 
• Opens up new areas of application
• Less impact on the environment  
• Survived a corrosive gas test and a climate test better than old gold coatings as measured from IR signal decrease 

Read a report on how gases affect OBA mirror surfaces here.