Chris' e-mail prompted this inquiry... I wish to ask a question regarding punching glass laminates. Suppose that I needed to make a million PCB's but they were not possible to do any other way than with multi-layer Fr4 type materials. Would you be stuck with routing the board edges only or is there a more cost effective solution? Punching in my experience was always a tool life issue due to the abrasive nature of the fiberglass. I have done many multi board panels in my career, including punch and return FR4, CEM1, and 'cracker', or scored board edge methods. I am wondering if the life of the punch and die tool could be extended by precutting the fiberglass cloth in a pattern that left a 'fiberglass free' void where the punch would trim the board leaving a web much like the typical type we see routed on multiple board panels? The punch would only be cutting epoxy then. I wonder if that precutting of the cloth process would significantly increase the cost of the cloth? What about alignment issues etc.... Many of you make your living solving problems like this... what suggestions would you have to solve this problem? Has anyone tried this? Thanks in advance... Bill Brooks PCB Design Engineer , C.I.D., C.I.I. Tel: (760)597-1500 Ext 3772 Fax: (760)597-1510 http://pcbwizards.com -----Original Message----- From: [log in to unmask] [mailto:[log in to unmask]] Sent: Tuesday, September 21, 2004 1:31 PM To: [log in to unmask] Subject: [DC] punching 4 layer board Hi All- I need to know if anyone is getting multi-layer boards with punched features today. If so, some feedback on the quality. One of our assembly houses wants to move some high volume boards to a new supplier who has already tooled up to punch the arrays. We've used millions and millions of punched CEM1 PCB's and a few million punched FR4 2 sided. Never had any problems attributed to the punch vs. routing process. Need to know if 4 or 6 layer FR4 is another story or no different than 2 sided FR4. I'm not talking about plated through features, just the board outline (many boards in an array). I asked this before and got a little feedback; at the time there was no feedback from anyone doing it. It seems some of these low cost Chinese houses do nothing else. Has anyone else run into this? Thanks in advance, -Chris "This e-mail message is intended only for the use of the intended recipient(s).The information contained therein may be confidential or privileged, and its disclosure or reproduction is strictly prohibited. If you are not the intended recipient, please return it immediately to its sender at the above address and destroy it." --------------------------------------------------- Technet Mail List provided as a service by IPC using LISTSERV 1.8e To unsubscribe, send a message to [log in to unmask] with following text in the BODY (NOT the subject field): SIGNOFF Technet To temporarily halt or (re-start) delivery of Technet send e-mail to [log in to unmask]: SET Technet NOMAIL or (MAIL) To receive ONE mailing per day of all the posts: send e-mail to [log in to unmask]: SET Technet Digest Search the archives of previous posts at: http://listserv.ipc.org/archives Please visit IPC web site http://www.ipc.org/contentpage.asp?Pageid=4.3.16 for additional information, or contact Keach Sasamori at [log in to unmask] or 847-509-9700 ext.5315 -----------------------------------------------------