Flex PCB Soldering

"So please spare me with the technical terms"

"I heard they cost around 4 or 5 bucks... that is way too expensive!"

You shouldn't expect much help here.

I'm not sure you are ready for this project.

Sounds like you don't understand what I am asking (or maybe you wanted to answer something but realized I am not asking that?)... I want to know about soldering processes and connector costs for FPCB's.

ready or not WE (DESIGN TEAM COMPOSED OF ELECTRICAL, MECHANICAL, ACOUSTICS, SYSTEMS, TOOLING, PM'S, MORE ELECTRICAL AND MANUFACTURING ENGINEERS ) are doing it. I am a manufacturing engineer with very little experience on FLEX PCB connectors and LCD's... we only solder the flex manually which has not been pleasant.

I am pretty much disapointed by your answer. If no one else answers I will cancel my account... Im dead serious.

I am pretty much disappointed by your questions.

You need a soldering expert on your TEAM. We cannot do your job for you.

To answer your questions, someone would have to be at your facility and survey the materials and processes in use. We don't read minds.

Talk to machine vendors about yields. Research the cost of components.

Do the legwork yourself.

I NEEDED ESTIMATES BUT YOU KNOW WHAT, I DONT NEED ANYTHING ANYMORE.

thank you for the help. If you are not going to respond my question, why do you answer?? this is what you look like:

question: Hey guys, what do you think about FPCB?

Answer: Well, if you don't know anything about it then you shouldn't be asking. Do you expect me to do all the hard work for you??

OFFCOURSE I WILL DO THE LEGWORK MYSELF!!!!! DO YOU THINK I WILL JUST FOLLOW INSTRUCTIONS GIVEN IN THIS FORUM??

WHAT A GREAT SUGGESTION!! YOU NEED A SOLDERING EXPERT ON YOUR TEAM!! WOW!! YOU ARE A GENIUS!!

google is your friend. Use the descriptions of your parts and google them together and then look at every link on 10-20 pages. Most will be useless, but it takes 2-3 seconds to get rid of the bad ones. save the good ones, read and learn

We did some on a couple of optical systems for airborn use and we used the clamps the manufacturer can provide. They have pins and holes to align contacts and they worked well under shock and vibration.

I do not have personal experience with flex PCBs, but I design systems and required circuits. So here is some advice for what it is worth. When I have a completed circuit design I visit the shop that does my assembly work and review the requirments with them. They are extreamly helpful. I then do the PCB design. I always have excelent results. A good shop will have all the knowledge and equipment to get the job done.

Find a good assembly shop and I am sure you will be pleased with the results.

Hi

Before soldering the flex board you have to make sure that there is no air entrapped inside the coverlay other wise while soldering delamination will be there.Also microetch the PCB before soldering manually to remove all the oxidation from the pads to have nice soldering.

Naveen

Regards

I suggest to use "Flex" cable terminated as end connector; tinned & Gold-plated and

mating sockets.

You can see being used in CD-Drives having at least 3 such connections.

I too agree that a connector is the best way to terminate flex cable to a pc board. This will allow for easy removal/replacement/repair should the need arise. But, if it is important to keep manufacturing costs to a minimum, the pin type of termination attached to the ends of the circuit lands and inserted into thru-holes and soldered to the pc bpard is also acceptable.

May I add; it disturbs me to see all this negativity and anger portrayed in our forum. I wish that those who have nothing positive to say were to then just say nothing. Thank you.

My first choice is using a clip connector but I was thinking that if it costs more than 50 cents then maybe we could manually solder it or better yet we could use a soldering reflow machine which could be faster and more consistent.

Pin type of termination attached to the ends of the circuit lands... Im not sure I have seen this. The Solid PCB has the through holes right? I will search this up.

Thank you for your help

1.- I can't calculate it because WE HAVE NO OTHER PRODUCTS WITH FLEX PCB!!! In order to calculate something I need field data which I don't have.... for now..

2.- Offcourse we fixed it!! we had to include a Transition pcb with just 4 lap solder pads to solder the small 2 lead Flex to a solid surface instead of cables (which burned 60% of our FPCB's).

3.- You are very funny, I assume that you are being sarcastic....

Hello to the Mexican,

In my experience, soldering anything more than 4 leads or joints to a circuit board is fraught with danger from a reliability point of view.

Hand soldering 1 wire 99.99% yield

Hand soldering 2 wire 99.8% yield

Hand soldering 3 wire 99% yield

Hand soldeirng 4 wire 97% yield

Reason being that as tehre are more connections, the difficulty of getting good access, proper heating and cooling time without disruption becomes more difficult.

The cost of connectors is "the cost that the market can bear" rather than raw manufacturing costs and your team is facing the decision of having to pay for the reliability and assembly speed that is available using connectors versus the inbuilt costs associated.

There are good IDC connectors available. The price that you pay will be dependant on the number that you want, but even at 500,000 per year you will not find them for $0.50.

There is another alternative that you might investigate. Transition PCBs (Variable thickness) that have portions of flex material and portions of rigid material are becoming available and provide excellent reliability. Yes there is a cost associated with making them, but that offsets the cost of whatever connection system you select and provides absolute reliability in the interconnection.

Lap soldering of a tape (flexible board) onto rigid will be difficult, but the real difficulty will come in the necessary rework operations when failure happens.

There are also methods of connecting to flexible material used for instance in automotive instrument panels. Go to the wreckers and buy an old IP and pull it apart. You will see lighting and interconnections made directly onto the flexible boards.