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

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Maintain Those Air Compressors And Air Dryers

Image
With the cost to purchase new drilling and routing machines at hundreds of thousands of dollars, it makes economical sense to provide oil free, and dry air to the equipment. With the new synthetic oils being used to lubricate the internal mechanical parts of compressor systems today, many overlook the fact that these oils that help compressors run efficiently are the same oils that contaminate and destroy the rubber "O" rings, seals, and solenoids used throughout the entire manufacturing facility when compressors are not functioning at top performance. Many times, years later, equipment that has been run with contaminated compressed air will have a life long list of problems that seems to never go away. "O" rings and seals are not the only items that can become damaged with poor air quality. The air hoses themselves can become rotten from the inside out. Many of the synthetic oils actually breakdown the rubber hoses to the point where they become super soft in which...
Read more

Measuring TIR Spindle Bearing Runout On Your CNC Machine

Image
Spindle Runout Problems Can Be Your Hidden Quality Issues In Building Reliable Printed Circuit Boards The simple definition of spindle radial runout is how much wobble a spindle produces at the nose. Axial runout is the measurement of how much play there is perpendicular to the axis of rotation. The reading is represented by Total Indicated Runout, TIR, which means the distance measured between the largest plus direction and the largest minus direction for a total indicated amount. A spindle can be measured either dynamically (at speed) or statically. The dynamic measurement is by far, the most accurate and requires special non-contact measuring devices. Today's air bearing spindles have gotten faster with higher precision than the ball bearing spindles of the past. Air bearing PCB spindles can typically be found running in the 120K RPM through 180K RPM ranges, with some spindles running up at 300,000 RPMs. Since the spindle air bearings are floating on air, no mechanical contact...
Read more

Checkout Used Excellon Equipment Before Buying

Everyone wants a great deal on Excellon machines or any used equipment. With many circuit board shops closing down, and their equipment being auctioned off, it is wise to have the machines checked out before buying. The Tale Of The Uninformed Used Equipment Purchase Excellon, Kennard, PDA, Pluritec, Hitachi, Mania, Klingelnberg, Advanced Controls, Trudrill, ESI, Dynamotion, ATI, Wessel, DAC, and other PCB drilling and fabrication equipment, that supposedly were running before being shut down have cost thousands of dollars to the unsuspecting buyer when buying blindly online through an auction or even the buyer looking at the machine in person. Instead of having a qualified and experienced service technician inspect the machines, buyers go it alone. Buyers think they are getting a great deal, but many times what they are getting is a big boat anchor. The outside of the machines can look all beautiful and cleaned up, while the inside is falling apart. We have seen machines that looked l...
Read more