Printing carbon oil or inks to the PCB (printed circuit board) refers to the use of screen printing technology to print carbon oil on the PCB board designated position, after the reflow oven test says OK, to form a qualified carbon film with a certain resistance value to replace the original resistance element.
Applying PCB carbon oil is similar to the legend/silkscreen printing, except that the carbon oil has good electrical conductivity, while the legend only plays the role of marking.
In a carbon ink PCB, carbon oil can be applied to the PCB pads and circuit traces for conductivity.
However, carbon oil can’t be soldered, so carbon ink PCB pads can’t be used to solder components, but only for electrical connectivity, like PCB switches or button pads.
Carbon Ink PCB Production Capacity
The Turnkey PCB manufacturer PCBONLINE manufactures and assembles carbon ink PCBs from prototypes to bulk production. Below are its carbon-ink PCB manufacturing capabilities.
1. carbon oil clearance because carbon oil has good conductivity, so the finished product plate has a certain gap of carbon oil required to ensure that it does not short circuit, usually requires a product minimum eight mil clearance gap(HOZ ), 12 mil clearance gap (1-3 oz copper), if the production film can increase the gap, the gap as far as possible to increase the finished product to ensure no short circuit.
2. Minimum alignment tolerance of carbon oil: +/-6mil
3. Size of carbon oil window and the gap with copper PATTERN: considering factors such as alignment tolerance and oil infiltration, carbon oil PAD single side needs 6 mil (HOZ base copper) and 8 mil (1-3oz base copper) larger than copper PAD to ensure no copper exposure. Correspondingly, the gap between the carbon oil window and the surrounding copper PATTERN also needs to be 6 mil (HOZ base copper) and 8 mil (1-3oz base copper), to avoid the carbon oil covering the surrounding copper PATTERN and thus avoiding short circuit.
Advantages and Applications of Carbon Ink PCB
Using carbon inks in a PCB provides many advantages.
Custom conductivity: Standard carbon ink includes high, medium, and low-resistance inks. What’s more, from the PCB manufacturer PCBONLINE, you can have the required carbon ink with a custom resistance.
Good wear resistance: Carbon ink pads have good resistance against wear and presses of a total time of 100,0000.
Low costs: Carbon ink PCBs are extremely cheap boards, as applying carbon inks is much cheaper than the other good-wear-resistance surface finishes like gold plating.
Carbon ink PCBs are used for consumer and industrial applications for buttons and switches, including:
Industrial, medical, and computer panels, key boards, switches
Remote controls for TVs, air conditioners, etc.
Electronic musical instruments like electronic organs and pianos
Electronic measuring instruments like multi-functional meters
Buy Carbon-ink PCBs from the Turnkey PCB Manufacturer PCBONLINE
PCBONLINE provides turnkey PCB manufacturing and assembly services for carbon ink PCBs from prototypes to bulk production.
Founded in 1999, PCBONLINE has two large advanced PCB manufacturing bases, one PCB assembly factory, stable components and material supply chains, and an R&D team for R&D and engineering support.
By working with PCBONLINE, you can order carbon ink PCBs with high, medium, low, and custom-resistance inks.
From the source factory PCB manufacturer PCBONLINE, the PCB and PCBA manufacturing are cost-effective and transparent.
The engineers at PCBONLINE provide free DFM (design for manufacturing) and one-on-one engineering support.
The PCB and PCBA are of high quality, certified with ISO 9001:2015, ISO 14001:2015, IATF 16949:2016, RoHS, REACH, and UL.
When your project goes to the bulky production stage, PCBONLINE refunds all fees in the prototype stage, including PCB prototyping, PCB assembly, components for the sample, and value-added services. Besides, the PCBA functional testing is free.
PCBONLINE has rich experience in carbon-ink PCB manufacturing, assembly, and box builds. To get a quote for your project, contact info@pcbonline.com.
Everything About PCBA Electronic Manufacturing 