Protect Your Manufacturing Investment by Protecting Your Electronics
With all the crazy weather that we’ve been getting (in Pittsburgh and beyond), we've fielded calls from tons of friends and fellow contract manufacturers who want to know how to best protect their products from the cold. People are worried that these extreme conditions will damage the solderability and overall performance of their circuit boards, and they’re right to be concerned! The wrong environment can cause a whole range of unsavory issues, from ESD (Electro-Static Discharge) to corrosion.
Since frozen electronics are useless electronics, it’s essential that you’re controlling the temperature, humidity, and other environmental factors in the building where you’re making your printed circuit board assemblies. With spring just around the bend, it’s also a good idea to start thinking about whether your PCB assembly space is ready to take on the heat and humidity! Since PCB speaks to us—picture TMG like the Dog Whisperer of electronics—we figured this would be a great opportunity to illustrate the ideal environment for the construction, storage, and testing of professional electronics.
Here are 4 important variables your facility should control in order to ensure high-quality, year-round circuit board production, rain or shine, in the heat or the cold:
Moisture/Humidity
Making certain that your facility is properly outfitted for humidity control is key. Get that space insulated, and make sure the RH (relative humidity) is set somewhere between 40% and 60%. Anything lower than 40% will greatly increase the risk of ESD, and anything over 60% will begin to pose a threat to moisture-sensitive devices.
2. Climate
Maintaining a proper temperature range throughout the year will keep your electronics assemblies in tip-top shape. If the temperature is too low in your production facility, not only will it present an unpleasant working environment for your employees, but it will increase the viscosity of your soldering paste, which will yield poor printing behavior, and ultimately, joint defects. On the flip-side, if your factory is a furnace in summer, the low solder paste viscosity will cause paste to smear and boards to oxidize. Best to keep the temperature in the low to mid 70s!
3. Safety precautions
At TMG, we know that no matter how much you do to control your environment, you should always be prepared for the unforeseeable. That’s why we make sure our employees are properly equipped for battle! On the factory floor, we wear heel and wrist straps to protect from circuit-damaging static shock that might result from random changes in humidity.
4. Conformal Coating
All of your essential components should be properly protected from the elements, and the best way to do that is by covering them with thin layers of synthetic resins or plastics. At TMG, we ensure that all of our products are galvanized with the best conformal coating in order to ward off dust, heat, chemicals, moisture, and other damaging or hazardous environmental variables.
Corrosion, delamination, excessive moisture, and static electricity are not your friends. They can hurt your workers and destroy a perfectly good product. If you’re an electronics manufacturing service that wants some more tips on weather-proofing your facility, or you’re an original equipment manufacturer looking to use TMG as a supplier, we’re always looking to talk shop! Shoot us a message; we’re happy to help!