Re: clipping through-hole leads

"Walter Harley" <walterh@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:eqKdnVPhU6Q-wj3enZ2dnUVZ_s-dnZ2d@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> In commercial through-hole PCB manufacturing (I know, this is like
asking
> about commercial horse-and-buggy manufacturing...), how are the
component
> leads clipped off after insertion and/or soldering?
>
> Is there some sort of spinning-saw-blade arrangement, or a dozen
underpaid
> workers with wirecutters, or ... ?
>

Walter,

For high volume work there are Lead Saws that are used to trim the
component leads after the board has been wave soldered. You can see one
here -> http://www.esuinc.com/lead.asp. The board is secured, solder
side up, in a jig and the cutting blade moves over the top. It's called
a saw but some have "blades" that more resemble a surface mill.

For low volume stuff simple wire cutters are used. For somewhat higher
volumes, air powered cutters are used to minimize operator fatigue and
repetitive motion injuries.

I suspect that where labor costs are low and worker health isn't an
issue, even higher volumes may be done by hand.

Hope this helps.

--
James T. White



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