Thursday, March 29, 2007

PCB Routing And Fabrication Machine

Watch a 4 spindle Excellon Mark 5 DR (Driller/Router) routing a stack of printed circuit boards. See how the automated process works.

Circuit boards are typically manufactured in a step and repeat layup, and held in place on the machine with tooling pins through the circuit board and into the soft tooling plates. Stack height varies depending on board thickness and material type.

Cutter bits for cutting PCBs are typically solid tungsten carbide, with a diamond cut geometry design. Table feed presented in the video is typical for a .093 inch diameter bit.



For more information related to service, maintenance, repairs, and preventative maintenance go to Excellon Machines. For informative articles related to drilling and routing, take a look at the postings published at Probe Industries Blog. Read the article: Understanding TIR and Measuring Spindle Runout. To get help with all your drilling and routing equipment service needs contact Probe Industries today.

Sunday, March 4, 2007

History Of Circuit Board Design

Great Article in Circuitnet From an Insider Perspective On The History of The Circuit Board Industry

Striving for Functionality: Ralph Robinson and the Beginnings of PCB Manufacturing in Northern California

In the mid-1950's, 'printed circuit' manufacturing technology was in its infancy, so much so that even though the manufacturing techniques were evolving, the available materials were not up to snuff. It was nearly impossible to build working circuit boards in any volume, certainly not enough to make any money on it.


Article in Circuitnet


This article gives great insight into the early days of printed circuit boards. If you ever get a chance to talk with Ralph Robinson, he is a great guy and can probably fill a ton of books with all the stories and information about circuit board manufacturing.

Probe Industries, Inc. Drilling and Routing Machines Repairs And Maintenance