Are Cheap Kapton heat resistant tapes and transparent nail polish act as a insulator?

Hi,
Yesterday I saw some cheap Chinese Kapton tape in our locale store, its cost around 70~100inr(1~1.5 usd). I asked the shopkeeper, is it as good as 3m ployimide film tape. He told me that it is, and it is cheap coz it is non branded. Is it true?:thinker: Can I use it on small diy projects(arduino,timer,etc), motherboard repair?

Secondly, In this link https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7o1ITMw-O2o at 10.35 minutes, He is using transparent nail polish to cover the components. Are they safe to use?

Thanks in advance

First ask yourself why you need Kapton tape. What special properties does it have that you need? Does the Chinese alternative have those properties?

Nail polish is certainly NOT a safe coating for components. It will react with other plastics and is not stable at higher temperatures, in fact it could easily ignite or decompose with bad results.

Brian.

Here is a site with a list of common ingredients in nail polish. The ingredients list doesn't strike me as good for electronics.

I've used real Kapton polyimide (lots and lots) and cheap knock-off stuff. Both worked; the real stuff held better under reflow temperatures than the knock-off brand did (not a big surprise, there). Same goes for the glue on copper tape: 3M has some of the best adhesives around, so their tape is pricey but always works and holds for the long-term. The knock-off stuff MOSTLY works.

I've run out of the roll of true Dupont Kapton I had, so all I have left here at home is the knock-off stuff. It's still working OK for me.

One of the benefits of using the true name-brand: Dupont offers Kapton in a low-ESD version, and I haven't seen anything similar from China. You can find the tech sheet at kaptontape.com I verified at work that it's truly less than 50V charge when you pull a strip off of the roll. I've clocked other tapes in excess of 2000V worth of charge. Fun experiment: grab a roll of Scotch Magic Transparent tape, go into the bathroom with a fluorescent bulb, and set the roll of tape against the fluorescent bulb. Turn the light off, and peel off a strip of the tape. The fluorescent bulb will light weakly. That's some SERIOUS static charge there. We only allow low-ESD tapes in our sensitive ESD Protected Areas.

Thanks for the info