I am just wondering what the options are for exotic soldermask colours when getting boards done by GP.
In the past I have had red, blue, green, black and yellow boards made, but when these coloured boards becoming more common, I am thinking of trying out a different colour that no one else has. The reason being is I like all my boards to have a “signature” colour, but with the normal choices it isn’t very “unique”.
I see that SFE has got Orange (Flame Kit) and Purple (Lilypad) boards made, which I assume are just a mix of Red/Yellow for orange, and Blue/Red for purple.
So from this I am assuming that GP can do any colour as long as its a mix of the main “primary” colours.
So my question is, has anyone ever got any really different soldermask coloured boards? If so, what colours and any pictures?
gussy:
I am just wondering what the options are for exotic soldermask colours when getting boards done by GP.
In the past I have had red, blue, green, black and yellow boards made, but when these coloured boards becoming more common, I am thinking of trying out a different colour that no one else has. The reason being is I like all my boards to have a “signature” colour, but with the normal choices it isn’t very “unique”.
I see that SFE has got Orange (Flame Kit) and Purple (Lilypad) boards made, which I assume are just a mix of Red/Yellow for orange, and Blue/Red for purple.
So from this I am assuming that GP can do any colour as long as its a mix of the main “primary” colours.
So my question is, has anyone ever got any really different soldermask coloured boards? If so, what colours and any pictures?
Cheers!
I was talking with my board fab recently about soldermask colors. They mentioned that a customer years back had a rainbow colored soldermask.
Something tells me that was a custom job.
I’ve always wanted a PCB with a marbled soldermask.
NleahciM:
I was talking with my board fab recently about soldermask colors. They mentioned that a customer years back had a rainbow colored soldermask.
Something tells me that was a custom job.
I’ve always wanted a PCB with a marbled soldermask.
A few years back a simple red or blue soldermask would have been different enough from green, but these days it needs to be a bit different from that again.
Rainbow does sound interesting, as does a marble finish…
bigglez:
To paraphrase Henry Ford "You can have any colour as
long as its green". BatchPCB does not offer other colours
and GP (BatchPCB’s fab partner) only offers other colours
on large orders (see their website for restrictions).
I get 2 or more panels a month done by GP so I know how their system works for normal colours, but I have never asked about different ones. I have always just got one of the 5 choices the list (green, red, blue, yellow, black).
bigglez:
Also, the solder mask may vary by process but is most likely a polymer film from a bulk roll the same width as the max
PCB size. To get a new colour you’d have to supply the
entire roll, and pay a swap-out fee to install it. The high
costs would certainly discourage this idea.
Seeing as how soldermask seems to pool around some places on boards, I always assumed that the soldermask is a liquid type of thing, and that to get different colours, they would just mix the colours together.
I remember one of the forum members here had GP make some white boards, a year or two back. They looked pretty sharp, too, though it looked a bit tricky to see the traces (from the pictures – it could be fine though ).
Oh – a quick google for ‘gold pheonix “white soldermask”’ returned his blog, complete with pictures!
bigglez:
Also, the solder mask may vary by process but is most likely a polymer film from a bulk roll the same width as the max
PCB size. To get a new colour you’d have to supply the
entire roll, and pay a swap-out fee to install it. The high
costs would certainly discourage this idea.
Seeing as how soldermask seems to pool around some places on boards, I always assumed that the soldermask is a liquid type of thing, and that to get different colours, they would just mix the colours together.
You may be right, and as you have a line of communication
to GP, please report back what they tell you.
Earlier in my career I took a tour of a multi-layer PTH
bigglez:
Also, the solder mask may vary by process but is most likely a polymer film from a bulk roll the same width as the max
PCB size. To get a new colour you’d have to supply the
entire roll, and pay a swap-out fee to install it. The high
costs would certainly discourage this idea.
Seeing as how soldermask seems to pool around some places on boards, I always assumed that the soldermask is a liquid type of thing, and that to get different colours, they would just mix the colours together.
You may be right, and as you have a line of communication
to GP, please report back what they tell you.
Earlier in my career I took a tour of a multi-layer PTH
PCB fab, and they ued DFSM and LPSM,[more info here..[/quote]
My PCB fab (an American quick turn company) uses LPI solder-mask for everything, I believe. It’s certainly their primary solder-mask material. As far as I know, the whole industry is pretty much shifting over to LPI SM.](Solder mask - Wikipedia)
gussy:
Seeing as how soldermask seems to pool around some places on boards, I always assumed that the soldermask is a liquid type of thing, and that to get different colours, they would just mix the colours together.
Where have you seen your mask pool? I'm used to seeing it sometimes get a bit thicker in front of traces (it gets caught there when they run a squeegee over the PCB to smooth the solder-mask material). Have you seen it pool elsewhere?
).