Our Need for Inco Vacuum Coating's ITO

Dendritics, Inc. has been selling Gemscale-50 internationally since 1991 and Gemscale-100 since 1993. Their accuracy, portability and dependability have made these balances the most popular portable carat balances in the world.

The Gemscale-50 and Gemscale-100 from Dendritics, Inc. are the first pocket portable carat balances. An electrostatic charge on the polycarbonate, hard coated draught shields was the last problem to overcome in the nine year research and development of this innovative scale for the gemstone and diamond industry.

Finding the problem was simple. When a draught shield was in place, to prevent inaccurate readings due to air currents, inaccurate readings would occur due to an electrostatic charge. This patented draught shield, designed to be an integral piece of equipment for our product now became an obstacle to weighing accurately rather than an advantage. Finding the solution was not simple.

The draught shield design required that it function as a durable, impact resistant carrying case when closed, a shield against draughts to prevent corrupted readings when angled up. The draught shield needed to remain transparent for the continued viewing of gems and diamonds. Opaque coatings were not an option; neither were eliminating the draught shield nor substituting inferior plastics for the polycarbonate.

The search was on for a electrostatic protection coating for anti-static use which would be abrasive resistant, suitable for polycarbonate, transparent and cost effective for production runs. After two years of searching and making compromises with solutions available to us domestically we came across a write up for Inco Vacuum Coatings in World's New Products promoting their electrostatic protection coating for polycarbonate.

The solution proposed by Inco Vacuum Coatings, a coating of indium tin oxide was ideal for our application. ITO Coating #ES1000T solved all our problems without compromise. The sputtered deposition has excellent adhesion to our hard coated polycarbonate. The abrasion resistance is superior to any coatings previously used. The ITO coating altered our transparency imperceptibly. The anti static properties of ITO are outstanding. As promised, the cost has been effective for our production numbers. Above satisfying all our technical and cost requirements the service, response time, quality and delivery of Inco Vacuum Coatings has been unrivalled.