Ever imagined why tooling holes for PCB are crucial for the fine performance of the devices? Not yet? Well, we are going to leave no stone unturned for you regarding fully understanding tooling holes in this post.
Tooling holes, aka mounting holes, are openings present at the corners of PCBs. You don’t plate these holes at all. Their purpose is to serve the machines that align and help in assembling the PCBs.
Tooling holes play their part during assembling, where PCB components need to be in a straight line and in a fixed position. It eventually eases out drilling as well. Non-plated tooling holes are a perfect fit for the drilling process.
Since these are more accurate than the holes in the plate. The solder mask also should not expand around the hole, which can complicate the drilling process. There is much more to the tooling holes that you might not know as of now. So let’s shed light on some important aspects of tooling holes together!
Amazing Features of Tooling Holes On PCB
You know that tooling holes are important for their salient features. These features eventually provide ease to the relevant PCB procedures. As you are already familiar with the fact that a PCB production area relies on different machines and equipment.
The purpose of these machines is to develop and assemble PCB components. The tooling holes are also important for PCB fabrication, where experts need to use these during designing the PCB components.
Also, tooling holes are necessary for applying the solder paste between the PCB components when machines are performing their jobs. After all this, if you are mistaking tooling holes with fiducial markers, then don’t.
Since these are not what you are thinking. Fiducial markers are some sort of pad-like structures for attaching to the PCBs to assist the machines used in the PCB production process.
Now it does not mean that fiducial markers are useless for PCBs. These elements are integral for the assembly of SMD PCB components and designing processes.
Functions Of Tooling Holes On PCB
It’s time that we start discussing the salient functions of tooling holes in this section. Or else you might leave out the most important aspect of tooling holes for your future projects. Here’s the thing, when you design or fabricate the PCBs, you need to make some holes of unlike sizes on the surface of the PCBs. Wait, what purpose do these holes serve? Let’s take a look at the following bullets for this:
- Well, these holes are for stabilizing the electrical transmission that takes place among the layers of PCBs.
- Some of these holes are responsible for holding the PCB components when you are about to solder them.
- Now, here comes the hitch. PCBs have some stubborn components that need you to give them extra mounting just to give them more physical anchor.
- Another role of tooling holes is to join the PCB parts with the electrical panel ground so that they can easily conduct the heat through the system.
- Some holes are useful for the assembly process that help the technicians with putting the hardware together easily.
- These tooling holes are also important for easing the mounting with the help of various machines.
- One more interesting function of tooling holes is that these are helpful in keeping the PCBs in a firm position when technicians are performing a technical task on PCBs.
Importance of Tooling Holes in PCB Manufacturing
· Cost Reduction
At the end of the day, you would want to produce bulk PCBs with a minimum budget. So tools just fit with this purpose for you. The PCB assembly is a process that needs a lot of finance from the producers. It means you can rely on the cutting boards and stencils for reducing the overall cost of PCB assembly.
· Faster Assembling Time
Sometimes, your clients keep throwing projects at you. It means you need to meet their demands and speed up your production process as well. If they require you to produce more PCBs, it means you need to focus on multiple PCB assemblies as well. So using tools like stencils can help you save much time and expedite the process at the same time.
· Reduce Material Waste
PCBs are nothing to waste since they are expensive. It means you need to devise ways to reduce the production cost. The producers have to consume all the PCB materials to reduce waste. So for this purpose, go with appropriate tools that will help you prepare your desired PCB structure with minimum wastage.
· Optimize Performance
Who does not want optimized PCBs for their devices? So do your clients right? Now if you use proper tools for optimizing your PCBs, here is what happens. It will consume less power and offer more data transmission and more longevity. What else do you need to add to your PCB designs?
· Improve Connectivity
PCBs need to be highly connective and efficient. Bear in mind that only efficient PCBs will offer you more connectivity. Not just tools help you with improving connectivity, but they also minimize layer swaps. All of this comes together and reduces the production cost for you.
Wait, the tooling won’t just stop surprising you here. We are only getting started with the remarkable benefits of tooling for PCBs. The next one is how tooling helps you maximize space on your PCBs.
· Maximize Space
Spacing on PCBs is an important factor that you need to pay attention to while designing PCBs. More space means you can add more important components to your PCBs. Now you see how you are making your PCBs more useful with tools. It mostly comes in handy when you need to work on small PCBs where there is less space for all the essential components.
· Ensures Good Quality Control
Is there any reason left for not choosing tooling for your next PCB project? Tooling for PCBs is a viable method to ensure quality control, reduce waste and precisely produce PCBs when you are under pressure from your clients and their deadlines.
· Correct Positioning
The PCB parts need to be perfectly positioned on the PCBs when there are more than one transformer, complex wiring networks, connectors, transistors, and others.
· Prevent Electrical shorts
Imagine giving your client an electric shock through a faulty PCB design. A nightmare, no? Tooling saves your sleep from such nightmares and prevents electrical setbacks. Electric short circuits and electrical fires often result when you don’t properly route the traces and mismanage the wires. When you use tools, these make sure everything is in place and working just fine.
· NRE Tooling
An electronic database is highly important for PCBs. Now such a database will help you revamp the former PCB designs and invent new ones. It only uses special software and eases the interpretation of designs. The designs also go through a review to ensure there are no hidden faults in the PCBs. It leads us to the next section, engineering, where we will see how it plays its role for the PCBs. Now you know why NRE tooling is of high importance for several PCB producers around the globe. It’s time that we see how NRE tooling combines with engineering, and for that, we need to check out the next section!
· Engineering
The purpose of engineering PCBs is to completely detect the minor to major PCB components. These can be tooling holes, fiducial markers, coupons, and everything that comes under the term “PCB components.” Now these components need perfect positioning on the PCBs, and an engineer makes sure of that. Another role of engineering is to make these PCBs get rid of small defects and technical problems as well. If there is a slight mishandling at the engineering step, it can create a negative impact on the PCB’s performance later.
· Processing
Now comes the final step, processing. You need to pay heed to the cost of the tools you are using for PCBs. There are some elements that contribute to the production of PCB components that have individual prices that you must know. Tooling holes go with a master panel during the production process to make it a smooth sail for the machines and the humans. After this, you drill the holes and route them to the PCB’s corners. Now, the early-stage panels are for combining them for drilling to save up time from drilling individual panels. Registration holes are for connecting the front-to-back imagery and inner-core imagery. These holes stay within the PCB and help in producing integral elements like legend, image, layup, and mask.
Bottom Line
It should be clear to you that without tools, your PCBs would be missing a certain kick that can put a huge smile on your client’s face.
Tools are for making your good PCBs better and more durable in the long run. Besides, these are for easy maneuvering of the PCB components as well.
However, it is important to use industrial-grade tools that offer nothing just finesse. Worn-out tools can terribly hurt your expectations that can cost a fortune to a PCB producer.
