Why through-hole technology is still alive in the SMT era

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There is a misconception that through-hole technology has disappeared from the LED landscape. Though considered outdated, through-hole technology is still alive and kicking, playing a crucial role in LED manufacturing.

By Shruti Mishra

As the designs of LEDs became more complex and miniaturised over time, their packaging technology also evolved to offer additional functionalities. To deal with the complexity, LED manufacturers gradually shifted towards the relatively new surface-mount technology (SMT), abandoning through-hole technology to a certain extent. Yet, despite a drastic drop in demand over the years, through-hole technology has proven resilient even in the age of SMT, offering a number of benefits that SMT cannot.
Through-hole technology is a mounting process in which the components’ leads are inserted into the pre-drilled holes of a bare printed circuit board (PCB). This technique allows the component lead to go through the board and exit from the opposite side, where it is soldered to copper tracks, thereby completing the circuit.

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Benefits of through-hole over SMT
Today, most technology leaders are moving towards SMT because it offers countless benefits over through-hole technology. These include a higher production rate, the ability to manufacture compact LED designs and low labour costs. Yet, this advanced process cannot match the mechanical, electrical and thermal durability of through-hole techniques. It is anticipated that through-hole technology will remain in use for prototyping and testing, which means that it is not going to be phased out anytime soon. Let’s take a look at some of its advantages.

High-reliability and durability: The through-hole mounting scheme creates strong mechanical bonds between the components and the PCB, as these are soldered from both the top and bottom of the board. In SMT manufacturing, components are fixed only by a solder, which is vulnerable to being damaged by plotting compounds as the PCBs go through thermal cycling.
In addition, the through-hole components’ leads run through the board enabling them to withstand more environmental stress. This is why through-hole based LED products are more suitable for outdoor applications like street lighting, which demands durability and high environmental and power tolerance to cope with the challenging weather conditions. Beyond LED lighting, the through-hole process is also used to a limited extent in aerospace and defence because of the high durability factor.

High-brightness: Through-hole technology makes use of primary optics to provide LEDs with highly reflective designs. Such LED lights are therefore suitable for illuminating billboards and stadiums, as they are extremely bright and durable.

Better heat dissipation: Through-hole LEDs offer better heat tolerance and thermal management than SMT because of the larger board space and low component density per unit area. Because of these two factors, the heat generated during the operation of through-hole LEDs can be easily dissipated, thereby increasing their life.

Good for prototyping and testing: Unlike SMT, through-hole boards are not manufactured using fully automated lines. They need human interference to complete tasks. Testing and prototyping applications require manual adjustments, for which through-hole technology is ideal because you can easily swap out the components on a board.

Machinery involved
The longevity of any LED product largely depends on the quality of its PCBs. A PCB acts as a support system, establishes a connection between the components and ensures a stable performance of any LED application. In certain respects, this primary component also helps in thermal management.
In any LED manufacturing process, making a mistake at the primary step, i.e. PCB assembly, can result in poor performance of the final product. That is why machines are used in the through-hole process to ensure error-free PCB production. Let’s take a look at some of them.

Screen printing machines

Screen printing is the fundamental step of the PCB manufacturing process, in which solder paste is printed onto the PCB during the manufacturing process.
Latest trends: Semi-automatic printing machines cut down the probability of errors to a large extent. For setting up, loading and unloading of bare PCBs, this machine needs an operator but the printing process is done automatically.

Model: CSF 3040, Manufacturer: APL Machinery Private Ltd
CSF 3040 is a flexible, trouble-free flatbed screen printing machine. It is easy to control, and its heavy duty and durable construction gives stability at full production speeds, ensuring high quality prints.

Key features

  • Maximum print area: 0.76m²
  • Vacuum bed movement: ± 10mm
  • Maximum screen frame size (L x W): 1.23m x 1.17m
  • Minimum screen frame size (L x W): 0.86m x 0.76m
  • Squeeze size (maximum): 1.05m
  • Squeeze size (minimum): 0.54m
  • Speed: 800IPH
  • Power consumption: 3.5kW
  • Printable object thickness: Upto 20mm
  • Weight: 450kg

Contact: www.aplmachinery.com


Soldering stations

These are electronic stations for the manual soldering of components onto a PCB board. The conventional soldering station consists of a temperature control unit and a  soldering iron that can be attached to it.
Latest trends: Nowadays, soldering stations come with digital displays that show the actual and set temperature. Along with this, they also offer a wide selection of soldering tips.

Model: M70, Manufacturer: Monarch Soldering
Monarch Soldering’s newly launched M70 soldering station comes with an ergonomically designed handpiece, a chisel tip, and a workstand with a standard and brass cleaning sponge. It provides fast temperature recovery and accurate temperature control along with thermocouple control.

Key features

  • Ambient operating temperature: 10°C to 40°C
  • Output power: 70W
  • Temperature range: 200°C – 450°C
  • Password protection
  • Multiple tip geometries available
  • Real-time ESD ground detection monitoring

Contact: www.monarchsoldering.com


Curing machines

Adhesives and coatings are used in PCB assembly to stick and protect the components onto the PCB board. The machines used for drying solvent-based products are known as curing machines. The conventional curing machines work on the basis of solvent evaporation. The downside of this process is it heats and shrinks the initial applications of the adhesives/coatings and causes environmental pollution.
Latest trends: These days, ultraviolet (UV) curing technology is in high demand because, as the name suggests, this process uses high-intensity UV light to instantly dry the coatings or adhesives. Since this new method uses light instead of heat and is entirely based on a photochemical reaction, it offers numerous benefits like no solvent evaporation, zero environmental pollution, zero loss of coating thickness and zero loss of volume. This ultimately speeds up the production rate, reduces wastage and maximises energy use.
In recent times, this technology has evolved to the extent that it can now be applied to three dimensional parts, and such machines are dubbed 3D curing machines.

Model: 3D curing machine, Manufacturer: APL Machinery Private Ltd

This machine is simple and convenient to operate. The unit is not computer dependent, the number of moving parts is minimised, and maintenance is minimal.

Key features

  • Easy to operate
  • Minimum maintenance
  • Long functional life

Contact: www.aplmachinery.com

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