Hi AndrewT,
That's a little too technical for me too answer but I guess it cuts that in half too.
I guess if you are using a cheap grade PCB material you could encounter problems with separations, and when soldering on the parts with too hot a Iron I seen traces lift ,but high quality boards usually don't exhibit these tendencies,
How do you cut your boards?
Best Regards,
NS
That's a little too technical for me too answer but I guess it cuts that in half too.
I guess if you are using a cheap grade PCB material you could encounter problems with separations, and when soldering on the parts with too hot a Iron I seen traces lift ,but high quality boards usually don't exhibit these tendencies,
How do you cut your boards?
Best Regards,
NS
There are numerous methods of cutting PCB's, cheaper ones are the bacon slicers or slicers as other use. All these methods shou;d be OK for unpopulated boards. When boards are populated you have to be carefull especialy with SMD caps, not to stress the components, so routing is best as it is the least stressfull, and laser routers are the best yet.
I have used tinsnips for years (never told anyone because it is so crude). I never had a problem with substrate seperation. You need to cut 1/16" or so from the finished product and then file the rest of the material off to get a clean edge
Recently I came across these: Dura-GRIT™ Shaping Burrs - Lee Valley Tools I have not tried them, but these cutters seem promissing. E
Recently I came across these: Dura-GRIT™ Shaping Burrs - Lee Valley Tools I have not tried them, but these cutters seem promissing. E
That should work well but the coarse grit might leave a not so smooth edge.
I use these: 5 Piece Diamond Coated Rotary Cutting Discs
Most substates these days should be of a reasonable quality, the bond between the copper and the FR4 is much better these days to cope with the higher temperatures of lead free solder. And cutting boards before assembly is not going to induce stresses on the components, not a problem with PTH components as they have large compliant legs, but SMD are suseptable.
For routers etc use fish tail bits for PCB material.
MLCC cracking, also relevant as numerous components are now leadless, so are more prone to felxural stress damage.
http://www.avx.com/docs/techinfo/assembly.pdf
For routers etc use fish tail bits for PCB material.
MLCC cracking, also relevant as numerous components are now leadless, so are more prone to felxural stress damage.
http://www.avx.com/docs/techinfo/assembly.pdf
I use a metal shear "guillotine", here shown cutting aluminum panels, but in the background you see some raw PCB blanks.
What's *VERY* important is to preheat the PCB material to around 80ºC (less and it's not enough; more and you risk unrepairable bubbles or copper separation), which forces me to use cotton or wool gloves to handle them.
But the blade cuts them like butter with *no* cracking at all.
By the way, it's what commercial PCB factories do !!
I have become very proficient with a Plumber type Propane Torch.
Here you have part of a batch of 36 or 40 100W+PSU boards:
And no, the saw seen behind on the rolling table is for cabinets, not for the PCBs.
They are there waiting for the sprayed on flux/varnish to dry.
which later will be used here:
What's *VERY* important is to preheat the PCB material to around 80ºC (less and it's not enough; more and you risk unrepairable bubbles or copper separation), which forces me to use cotton or wool gloves to handle them.
But the blade cuts them like butter with *no* cracking at all.
By the way, it's what commercial PCB factories do !!
I have become very proficient with a Plumber type Propane Torch.
Here you have part of a batch of 36 or 40 100W+PSU boards:
And no, the saw seen behind on the rolling table is for cabinets, not for the PCBs.
They are there waiting for the sprayed on flux/varnish to dry.
which later will be used here:
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