Is the laser cutting PCB circuit board process mature?

In the current PCB circuit board cutting market, the requirements for PCB product quality are getting higher and higher, especially PCBA products and micro PCB products containing components. The quality requirements for PCB circuit boards are very high, and the requirements for PCB circuit board separation are also getting higher and higher. Common PCB board separation equipment mainly uses cutting tools, milling cutters, gong cutters and other methods for processing, which have defects such as dust, burrs, and stress, and have a great impact on PCB circuit boards with components and components. These traditional separation methods are difficult to adapt to new application requirements. On this basis, the laser cutting PCB process provides a new solution for PCB separation processing.

The advantages of laser cutting PCB are small cutting gap, high precision and heat affected range less than 0.1mm. Compared with the traditional PCB cutting process, laser cutting PCB has the advantages of no dust, no stress, no burrs and smooth cutting edge. Is the laser cutting PCB equipment mature now? Can it be used on a large scale? From the perspective of Laisei Laser, the laser cutting PCB equipment is not yet fully mature, mainly because the defects of the laser cutting PCB equipment are very obvious.

The defects of laser cutting PCB equipment are low cutting speed, the thicker the material, the lower the cutting speed, and the processing speed of different materials will also be different. Taking FR4 material as an example, the speed of 1.6mm double-sided v-groove board and 15W ultraviolet laser cutting machine is less than 20mm/s. Compared with traditional processing methods, it cannot meet the speed requirements of milling cutter cutting PCB equipment. In addition, for cutting thicker materials, such as PCBs above 1mm, a carbonization effect will occur, which is also the reason why many PCB processing manufacturers cannot accept it.

The laser cutting PCB has these shortcomings, does anyone still use it? At present, there are some shipments of LaiSe laser cutting PCB equipment, but the shipment volume is not large. It is mainly used in manufacturers with relatively high requirements such as mobile phone PCB, automobile PCB, medical PCB, etc. The laser cut PCB has a smooth surface without burrs and stress, and is used by some manufacturers with high product quality requirements.

In summary, the current market for laser cutting PCB printed circuit board equipment has relatively high cost and low speed, which has not yet made its market mature, but laser technology is constantly improving. The higher the laser power, the better the beam quality. The high-frequency and high-pulse energy required for laser cutting of printed circuit boards is also getting better and better, and the equipment cost will also be lower and lower. At this stage, prepare better high-frequency and high-pulse energy for the maturity of the market.