Re: de-panelizing scored PCBs

Nico Coesel wrote:

"Walter Harley" <walterh@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:


One can get PCBs manufactured as one big board that contains multiple copies of the intended product, eg an NxM array of little PCBs. The separation can either be by a v-score, or by tab-routing.

With tab-routing, it's easy to bust the individual pieces out by hand, but one is left with non-straight edges because of the spots where the tabs connect. This is fine in some applications, but a problem in applications where the board needs to *** up against eg an enclosure edge.

With v-scoring, it seems that it is physically a bit challenging to separate the boards without applying a lot of stress to the board, something I'm reluctant to do after the parts have all been soldered on.

How is separation of v-scored boards done, in commercial practice? Is there some trick to it, such as warming the board first, or using some sort of clamp?


You can buy cutters to do this. The cutter uses 2 sharpened wheels
that seperate the boards.

Look what I found with Google:
http://www.seetrax.com/vcutsep.htm
How well would it work on PCBs that have parts on both sides?
.

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