Deletion of inscriptions on components

[rdec4]

Please provide chemical method for cancellation of inscriptions on integrated circuits (IC), microprocessors, capacitors and transistors in plastic body.

What substance can be used to delete the label without damage itself a component?

[Götz von Berlichingen]

What do you want to hide ?
Did you develop something special, or did you copy someone elses work ?
Your Customers will be unhappy because repair gets almost impossible.
If you really make state of the Art Electronics,
use the code Protection Feature of your Microcontrollers / PSoCs.

For a bad Example of "secret circuits", look at Minelabs.

[Noemio]

Since a lot of ICs are not pad printed but laser marked, I think it would be better to rub away the inscription even just with sandpaper or, better, with a sanding tool.

[Max]

Please provide chemical method for cancellation of inscriptions on integrated circuits (IC), microprocessors, capacitors and transistors in plastic body.

What substance can be used to delete the label without damage itself a component?

Scrap the epoxy... use sanding tool + minidrill

[gwzd]

small file works fine.
R.A.

[rdec4]

For laser marked inscriptions sanding tool + minidrill are good options

For pad printed this method is too severe.

Is someone used a chemical which can delete pad printed inscriptions?

Any idea?

[ron_o]

Methylene Chloride ( paint stripper ) or Acetone should be effective without dissolving the components case

[gwzd]

Methylene Chloride ( paint stripper ) or Acetone should be effective without dissolving the components case

Acetone doesn't work, I use it sometimes to clean up the pcb and have never seen even the top overlay labels going away.
The paint stripper might be effective, but have never tried.
Regards,
R.A.

[ron_o]

I agree that Acetone is not always effective because it evaporates to quickly , but like Methylene Chloride it is readily available.
If available a very effective solvent is N.M.P ( N-Methyl-2-Pyrrolidone ) but i would suggest reading the products Health and Safety Data Sheet before proceeding.
Regards,
R.F.O

[joecoin]

Why not take a dremel grinder and lightly grind away the characters?

[Max]

For laser marked inscriptions sanding tool + minidrill are good options

For pad printed this method is too severe.

Is someone used a chemical which can delete pad printed inscriptions?

Any idea?

Hi,
be really careful, but you can maybe use an organic solvent plus an ultrasonic cleaner device.

You can use acetone, isophropanol, dyethil ether as solvents.

Be EXTREMELY careful when using that stuff. The cavitation generate heat and vaporize the solvents too... so there's hi risk of set up on fire your house/lab or explosion too.

Expecially with ether, that has very low ignition temperature, you MUST be aware of danger involved in such stuff.

That solvents will not dissolve your components' cases but will totally remove the labels over that, cause of the ultrasonic waves in cavitation.

You could find over the Internet details about the process... and how to keep rational safety procedures too. I suggest, if you wanna try that, you'll only do that stuff outdoor... far from people or buildings.

You can buy an ultrasonic cleaner or build yourself if find parts required.
It's possible made also big ones.

You can also recycle the solvents many times.

Kind regards,
Max

[gwzd]

Why not take a dremel grinder and lightly grind away the characters?

Actually that's by far the most reliable and safe way to do it, if you absolutely need to do so. Most simple schemes can be reverse engineered even without labels, when you find a 4 to 6 layer board then things start to get complicated. Sometimes a component is so important that deleting only that one can cause lots of trouble for the fellows trying to steal your ideas. Sometimes the circuit is so simple or straightforward that all the trouble is not worth the dremel bit.
Nowadays lots of efforts go into the development of the firmware and the actual circuitry doesn't matter a lot anymore. Protecting that firmware is most of the time a bigger concern than deleting components labels.
Regards,
R.A.

[Max]

Hi,
if he asked just about label deleting , probably he have no MCU there... no code, just analog circuit. Or if there's code... it's not so relevant issue as protecting the analog part of the circuit.

I think another good strategy, after removing labels is sealing all in coloured/not-transparent epoxy stuff... that will make things really hard (not impossible, but very disappointing) for the potential reverse engineer...

There are ways to remove that stuff too from components , but all are invasive and take time, efforts, nervs... with often bad results... cause stuff will be damaged in the removing process.

Sure... this way is heavy stuff: the board will weight more and more... depending on the layer thickness... so it's not so good for larger boards.

But it's enough safe. If labels are removed and epoxy all over then there's good chance the design will survive for years without successful reverse engineering.

This will be just if there will be not a REAL MOTIVATED reverese engineer... against which is hard to say what will be "totally" safe masking procedure!

So, safety depends much on how many people and how much they're truly interested in discovering the secret...

Kind regards,
Max

[Fred]

Why not take a dremel grinder and lightly grind away the characters?

I suppose all the non-chemical process will not allow to re-print a label on the component