Hot-Bar Flex cable Design Notices

The Hot-Bar reflow is a selective soldering process where connect two pre-fluxed, solder coated parts by heating element, call a thermode, with proper temperature to melt the solder.

Applying a pressure and contacting on the soldering target is necessary to melt the solder and insure that components stay in place during cooling.

Shipping carton drop/impact test

The electronic industry grows quickly. Each vendor takes responsible to his own component only to make it good and low cost. Take a flashlight manufacturer as example. There are bulb, wires, switch, spring, and plastic or metal housing make up the flashlight. The manufacturer buys all the sub-components from each supplier and assembles them together to fabricate the flashlight then sell to end-user.

All the sub-components are delivery by air, ocean, or truck to destination. It is important to prevent the delivery parts without damage during transferring. Most of the packaging uses corrugated paper carton and cardboard to hold inside components and prevent it from damage by falling or throwing down by porter or carrier.

Flex cable(FPC) Trace Pattern Layout Design Notices

Many FPCB designer are not familiar with the manufacturer and bring lot of quality issue after mass production. Here I summary some of the design notices for the flex cable (FPCB)  manufacturing  ability to prevent future quality fail.