Precision PCB Fabrication, PCB Assembly, Components sourcing,  No MOQ...
You are here: Home » About Us » PCB Blogs » Knowledge » Mill PCB bare board by yourself

Mill PCB bare board by yourself

Inquire

facebook sharing button
twitter sharing button
line sharing button
wechat sharing button
linkedin sharing button
pinterest sharing button
whatsapp sharing button
kakao sharing button
snapchat sharing button
sharethis sharing button

If you have a single or double layer PCB need to make, instead of sourcing it outside, maybe you can mill it out by yourself. It is the process of removing areas of copper from a sheet of printed circuit board material to recreate the pads, signal traces and structures according to patterns from a digital circuit board plan known as a layout file.

PCB milling has advantages for both prototyping and some special PCB designs. Probably the biggest benefit is that one doesn't have to use chemicals to produce PCB's.

When creating a prototype, outsourcing a board takes time. Alternative is to make a PCB in-house. Using the wet process, in-house production presents problems with chemicals and disposing. High-resolution boards using the wet process are hard to achieve and still, when done, one still has to drill and eventually cut out the PCB from the base material.

CNC machine prototyping can provide a fast-turnaround board production process without the need for wet processing. If a CNC machine is already used for drilling, this single machine could carry out both parts of the process, drilling and milling. A CNC machine is used to process drilling, milling and cutting.

Many boards that are simple for milling would be very difficult to process by wet etching and manual drilling afterwards in laboratory environment without using top of the line systems that usually cost multiple times more than CNC milling machines.

PCB milling

PCB outline milling process


Similar to the more common and well known chemical PCB etch process, the PCB milling process is subtractive: material is removed to create the electrical isolation and ground planes required. However, unlike the chemical etch process, PCB milling is typically a non-chemical process and as such it can be completed in a typical office or lab environment without exposure to hazardous chemicals. In chemical etch process, the quality of a circuit board depends on the accuracy and/or quality of the photo masking and the state of the etching chemicals.

High quality circuit boards can be produced using either process. In the case of PCB milling, the quality of a circuit board is chiefly determined by the system's true, or weighted, milling accuracy and control as well as the condition (sharpness, temper) of the milling bits and their respective feed/rotational speeds.

In mass production or multilayer PCB, milling is unlikely to replace etching although the use of CNC is already standard practice for drilling the boards. Also, you need to know the programming of CNC machine, that is another disadvantage.


Table of Content list
Sign up for our newsletter

PCB Fab

PCB Assembly

Capabilities

CONTACT US
General Inquiry
Email: sales@syspcb.com
Phone: +86-0769-82201689
Fax: +86-0769-87799518

Tech Support
Email: tech@syspcb.com
Phone: +86-0769-82201689
SOCIAL NETWORKS
Copyright © 2024 SYS Technology Co., Ltd. All Rights Reserved.|Privacy policy|sitemap
We use cookies to enable all functionalities for best performance during your visit and to improve our services by giving us some insight into how the website is being used. Continued use of our website without having changed your browser settings confirms your acceptance of these cookies. For details please see our privacy policy.
×