One thought is to make them much more brittle by holding at liquid
nitrogen temperature during machining.  They would probably behave like
a metal.  Perhaps laser cutting is a possibility.  Or oxygen plasma etch
after your regular matching.  These are just ideas, no experience.

Pat Hogue
Materials and Processes
[log in to unmask]

> ----------
> From:         Torben Østeraa[SMTP:[log in to unmask]]
> Reply To:     TechNet E-Mail Forum.;Torben Østeraa
> Sent:         Sunday, June 07, 1998 3:14 AM
> To:   [log in to unmask]
> Subject:      [TN] Machining of polyimide flex material.
> 
> Dear collegues,
> 
> We are a producer of R/F pwb's. The great majority of jobs run in very
> small numbers, so we have to avoid expensive tooling. As a
> consequence,
> all machining of part-components and finished panels is done by
> nc-routing.
> Unfortunately, we have been unable to avoid burring of the quite tough
> polyimide laminate. Therefor, a substantial work is put into manual
> 'deburring'.
> This is a very time consuming operation which we would like to avoid.
> Any
> advise regarding optiming routing or experinces with possible
> alternaive
> methodes, e.g. water-jet or laser cutting, would be very welcome.
> 
> Regards
> 
> Torben Oesteraa
> [log in to unmask]
> Printca AS
> Denmark
> 
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