One extra V-score would have saved the whole panel

The other day we had one of those aha moments again where you learn more during assembly than during design.

DeltaProto always builds 1 or 2 PCBAs as a sample. In this case we had assembled a single flex-rigid PCB that had to stay in the panel, because of the support it needed during the process.

During the soldering process things went wrong.....

Despite preheating, the panel delaminated. And because the PCBs were still connected to each other, we could no longer process the remaining PCBs separately.

Result:

one problem on one PCB → the complete panel unusable.

Afterwards the solution would actually have been simple:

One extra V-score in the right position.

That would have let us separate the PCB we were going to assemble from the rest of the panel, and we could have kept the remaining PCBs for further assembly.

This is exactly why, when we prepare a #protoPCBA, we do not only look at the PCB data.

We mostly look at the learnings from the production and assembly process as well.

For standard PCBs, panelisation for a single prototype is often not needed at all.

But with flex-rigid PCBs, for example, you regularly cannot avoid it. And then the way you build up the panel suddenly does become an important part of the design for assembly.

An extra V-score is only a small design choice.

But as so often with hardware: the smallest details can have the biggest consequences.

#PCBAProtoLabLearnings #HappyEngineering