Hi all,

At my place of work we use very expensive PCBs which by time their tracks and pads start to delaminate.
Are there any professional PCB repair companies which can fix PCB tracks and vias?

 

CircuitMedic may have some advice: http://www.circuitmedic.com/products/201-3130.shtml

I use their rivets for through hole and making "vias."

John

 

Lot of unusual things combined there, therefore a lot of questions.
Are the PCBs expensive or the components on them? If the PCB themselves, what is so special about them? Most importantly, what are you doing with the boards that you wear them out so much that the pads start to lift? Or do they just lift by themsekves after some time from manufacture?
A bit of technique and using proper tools go a long way, just today I changed a mosfet driver IC six times on the same board, and not once did the board get damaged.

Also if you have a board where you know you will change some components a lot (say snubber components that need to be tweaked) you could place some vias in the corners to stabilize the pads and connect them better to the board substrate.

 

Hi,
Thanks for the replies. The PCB themselves are expensive. They are designed to withstand extreme temperatures (both cold and hot), resistant to warpages, multilayer, and so on. The wear is mostly done by constant use (extreme temperatures), bad handling of the boards, and the constant impact from pogo-pins.

 

Could you be more specific on what the board actually does? I somehow can´t see why a board would need to endure temperature extremes, while being constantly stabbed by pogo pins.

 

These boards are used for testing purposes in temperature chambers.

 

So the boards are the testing rig, or are they being tested? Do the pogo pins poke into those boards or are they what holds them in place?

 

bad handling of the boards

Well there is one thing I hope you are already addressing..
I'm sure there are some IPC classes/training material on repairing circuit boards also.

Are these polymide laminates? FR4? Isola? ,etc..
What is the nature of the defects? Broken traces? lifted pads? lifted traces? ,etc..

I've repaired many broken traces with copper tape or other processes..
Like this..

 

Hi,
Thanks for the replies. The PCB themselves are expensive. They are designed to withstand extreme temperatures (both cold and hot), resistant to warpages, multilayer, and so on. The wear is mostly done by constant use (extreme temperatures), bad handling of the boards, and the constant impact from pogo-pins.

Are the boards multi-layer? I often wondered how well the rivets solution works with multi-layer boards. I have used them back when boards only had a top and bottom layer.

 

Are the boards multi-layer? I often wondered how well the rivets solution works with multi-layer boards. I have used them back when boards only had a top and bottom layer.

Repairing blind vias or multi-layer vias is virtually impossible..
"rivets" really only work with double sided boards..