-
- News
- Books
Featured Books
- smt007 Magazine
Latest Issues
Current IssueIPC APEX EXPO 2024 Pre-show
This month’s issue devotes its pages to a comprehensive preview of the IPC APEX EXPO 2024 event. Whether your role is technical or business, if you're new-to-the-industry or seasoned veteran, you'll find value throughout this program.
Boost Your Sales
Every part of your business can be evaluated as a process, including your sales funnel. Optimizing your selling process requires a coordinated effort between marketing and sales. In this issue, industry experts in marketing and sales offer their best advice on how to boost your sales efforts.
The Cost of Rework
In this issue, we investigate rework's current state of the art. What are the root causes and how are they resolved? What is the financial impact of rework, and is it possible to eliminate it entirely without sacrificing your yields?
- Articles
- Columns
Search Console
- Links
- Events
||| MENU - smt007 Magazine
The Authors of the Printed Circuits Handbook 'Speak'
August 30, 2016 | I-Connect007Estimated reading time: 2 minutes
Editor’s Note: The seventh edition of the Printed Circuits Handbook was published this spring, which was also the 50th anniversary of the first edition. For this issue—“Voices”—we asked the many authors of the handbook for their thoughts—their voices. We asked a few questions to get them started; though not everyone spoke strictly about the handbook, we found their comments interesting and thought-provoking, and we hope you do as well. We begin with a wonderful history of the Handbook by the main man himself, Clyde Coombs.
Clyde Coombs Editor-in-Chief (Chapter 1)
The Printed Circuits Handbook is now in its seventh edition, and we are observing the 50th anniversary of the publication of the first edition. This long-term level of importance in an industry is remarkable, but the need for this book seems obvious today. This is to put the concept of the book into the context of the industry when the first edition was published, and try to explain why there was a book in the first place, and what led to this long string of successful subsequent editions.
Touring a modern, technology- and capital-intensive, highly-automated printed circuit factory of today, supported by a staff of trained specialists, many with advanced degrees in science, engineering and systems, would be a totally different experience than touring a printed circuit shop of 1959. For the most part, those shops were the creation of entrepreneur artisan platers or silk screeners, and the facilities were called “bucket shops” for good reasons. With the exception of IBM, Collins Radio, RCA, and a few others, along with the founding members of IPC, the estimated several thousand shops in the United States (numbers at the time ranged from 4,000 to 7,000) were operated by rules of thumb, years of experience in related trades, and generally considered an art, not a technology.
Shops were divided into two categories: captives, which made boards as a part of a vertically integrated OEM, and independents, which made and sold boards to OEMs that did not make their own. Both categories of shops could be justified since it was generally accepted that it did not take significant technical skill, or a large capital expenditure to start a shop. However, in 1959, the printed circuit world was on the brink of a major revolution that few shops were prepared to cope with, and most shop managers did not understand. The spark for this was the sudden introduction, and swift adoption, of the transistor into electronic devices. As vacuum tubes disappeared, and more functionality was designed onto much smaller boards, there was a sudden need to be able to connect circuits on both sides of a board reliably.
Editor's Note: This article originally appeared in the August 2016 issue of SMT Magazine.
Suggested Items
PCBflow Helps Designers Choose Best Manufacturer for the Job
03/28/2024 | Andy Shaughnessy, Design007 MagazineI recently spoke with a few technologists who have first-hand experience with PCBflow: Susan Kayesar, technical product manager with Siemens; Evgeny Makhline, CTO of Nistec, a CEM based in Israel; and Peter Tranitz, senior director of technology solutions and leader of the IPC Design Initiative. They explain how PCBflow functions, from the designer’s and manufacturer’s viewpoint, and how this database helps break down the wall between these stakeholders.
ASMPT to Exhibit Smart Manufacturing at IPC APEX EXPO 2024
03/27/2024 | ASMPTWith its innovative, data-driven Intelligent Factory concept and a comprehensive hardware and software portfolio around SMT production, market and innovation leader ASMPT will be a major presence at the IPC APEX EXPO 2024, the industry’s main event in California.
Mycronic to Showcase More Versatile, High-productivity Assembly Solutions at IPC APEX EXPO 2024
03/27/2024 | MycronicMycronic, the leading Sweden-based electronics assembly solutions provider, will continue to respond to growing customer demand for high-flexibility, high-productivity solutions for zero-defect PCB assembly at IPC APEX EXPO 2024 in Anaheim, CA on April 9 - 11.
TRI Launches New Advanced Packaging 3D CT AXI Solution
03/26/2024 | TRITest Research, Inc. (TRI) proudly announces the launch of the SEMI 3D CT AXI solution, TR7600F3D SII Plus, marking a paradigm shift in precision and reliability for high-reliability electronics manufacturing, such as the Advanced Packaging Industry.
Blackfox Ready for IPC APEX EXPO 2024
03/26/2024 | Andy Shaughnessy, I-Connect007Blackfox Training Institute offers IPC-certified training for a myriad of PCB assembly techniques and standard certifications. With many technologists beginning to eye retirement, this training is at a premium. I recently spoke with Jamie Noland, director of training and education for Blackfox, about the company’s latest educational efforts, and his plans for the upcoming IPC APEX EXPO, where Blackfox will be exhibiting.