Hi there,
Can somebody provide me with list of stencil makers that makes steel or plastic stencils?
Regards
PCB Pool makes steel ones quite cheaply.
Leon
smdFan:
Hi there,Can somebody provide me with list of stencil makers that makes steel or plastic stencils?
Regards
Stencils Unlimited for stainless
Ohararp.com for Kapton
James L
I just want to second the recommendation for Oharap.com. I ordered a laser cut kapton stencil from him and the cutouts are extremely sharp.
Also, the service I received was excellent. Ryan answered the couple of questions I asked of him very quickly. Needless to say, I’ll be getting my stencils from him in the future… bye-bye stainless steel!
tesseract:
I just want to second the recommendation for Oharap.com. I ordered a laser cut kapton stencil from him and the cutouts are extremely sharp.Also, the service I received was excellent. Ryan answered the couple of questions I asked of him very quickly. Needless to say, I’ll be getting my stencils from him in the future… bye-bye stainless steel!
Be very careful making that statement.
Kapton is a great material, but there are some things that are important.
-
It is very moisture sensitive. It will change dimensions with humidity. (1% moisture sensitive)
-
It is a good material, until you need to get very small apertures. The material is good, but Ryan can only cut so small.
This is not a criticism of Ohararp. It is just a realization of capabilities.
I wish I could say goodbye to stainless, but it isn’t going to happen. Those 144 pin LQFP’s just aren’t going to happen with Kapton. I just won’t chance it. (Rework sucks).
James L
Be very careful making that statement.
Kapton is a great material…
Good observations! I mainly design high power analog stuff so I don’t have to deal with fine pitch SMT parts as a rule. That said, a board I am laying out right now has an LQFP-80 part on it which will likely be a good test for Oharap.com.
But just on what I can see from the stencil I just had made, if you aren’t looking to make hundreds of boards and you aren’t pushing the design rules, the laser-cut Kapton stencils from Oharap.com look like a helluva deal to me.
tesseract:
Be very careful making that statement.
Kapton is a great material…
Good observations! I mainly design high power analog stuff so I don’t have to deal with fine pitch SMT parts as a rule. That said, a board I am laying out right now has an LQFP-80 part on it which will likely be a good test for Oharap.com.
But just on what I can see from the stencil I just had made, if you aren’t looking to make hundreds of boards and you aren’t pushing the design rules, the laser-cut Kapton stencils from Oharap.com look like a helluva deal to me.
You can make hundreds of boards with the Kapton. We have one stencil from Ohararp which has made 260 boards so far (two separate runs).
But you are right, if keeping with pretty standard un-fine pitch parts, and watching humidity/stencil size, their deal is hard to beat.
Also on most parts, even fine pitch, if using gold plating (board plating) the Kapton should work. With solder plated boards the apertures need to be reduced, which causes the laser point needed to be very small.
It is a quantitative problem. Solder on board (from PCB supplier) + paste = bridges.
Gold on board + paste = probably no bridges (since gold will not mix with the reflowed paste)
James L
smdFan:
Hi there,Can somebody provide me with list of stencil makers that makes steel or plastic stencils?
Regards
PCB-POOL are offering Free smd stencils with all prototype pcb orders,
stainless steel , 150 um thickness, -works very well.
http://www.pcb-pool.com/ppus/firm.html
Mtthw
smdFan:
Hi there,Can somebody provide me with list of stencil makers that makes steel or plastic stencils?
Regards
Checkout this website
http://www.applied-electronics.com
Regards,
SMTStencils:
smdFan:
Hi there,Can somebody provide me with list of stencil makers that makes steel or plastic stencils?
Regards
Checkout this website
http://www.applied-electronics.com
Regards,
Not to knock the service…I do not see the advantage of $25.00 mylar stencils, when I can buy $25.00 Kapton stencils and not deal with the “flash” issue.
We have tried Mylar in the past, and found Kapton to be a much better material to use, even though it is humidity sensitive.
James L
It seems that you copied ohararp’s size/price model, but are using mylar.
Shouldn’t it be cheaper as mylar is not as good as kapton (as pointed out by James).
Either way, nice to see another small/cheap proto stencil place around. The more the better.
propellanttech:
SMTStencils:
smdFan:
Hi there,Can somebody provide me with list of stencil makers that makes steel or plastic stencils?
Regards
Checkout this website
http://www.applied-electronics.com
Regards,
Not to knock the service…I do not see the advantage of $25.00 mylar stencils, when I can buy $25.00 Kapton stencils and not deal with the “flash” issue.
We have tried Mylar in the past, and found Kapton to be a much better material to use, even though it is humidity sensitive.
James L
James,
Applied Electronics will also offer SMT stencils made from Kapton for the same flat rate of $25 without limitation on the number of ICs or other components. You can choose to use as much of 8.5x11 sheet as you like. Check back for Kapton in 2 to 3 weeks.
Regards
SMTStencils:
James,Applied Electronics will also offer SMT stencils made from Kapton for the same flat rate of $25 without limitation on the number of ICs or other components. You can choose to use as much of 8.5x11 sheet as you like. Check back for Kapton in 2 to 3 weeks.
Regards
Now we are getting somewhere.
Can I ask, what the smallest aperture possible will be? This is always important to us.
What will be the finest pitch of SMT parts?
These things are important to know when advertising a new service.
James L
propellanttech:
SMTStencils:
James,Applied Electronics will also offer SMT stencils made from Kapton for the same flat rate of $25 without limitation on the number of ICs or other components. You can choose to use as much of 8.5x11 sheet as you like. Check back for Kapton in 2 to 3 weeks.
Regards
Now we are getting somewhere.
Can I ask, what the smallest aperture possible will be? This is always important to us.
What will be the finest pitch of SMT parts?
This things are important to know when advertising a new service.
James L
James,
Checkout your private message.
Regards
I am interested too. 0603/0402 is common but every now and then there is the odd 0201…
gussy:
I am interested too. 0603/0402 is common but every now and then there is the odd 0201…
Hello gussy,
The beam width of the laser is in the range of 0.005-0.007 inch (0.127-0.1778mm).
The 201, 603, and 402 are done very comfortably. The dimension of the 201 pad are around 0.3 mm. So it is not a problem for our machine.
Regards,
Those figures are very good to know! I try out some of your stencils when you get kapton 
gussy:
Those figures are very good to know! I try out some of your stencils when you get kapton
hello gussy,
Now Applied Electronics provide both Mylar and Kapton SMT stencils. Starting this coming Thursday (June 25th), we will take order for Kapton too. You can choose either Mylar or Kapton of size 8.5x11 inch (actual size for Kapton is 8.5x12) without any restriction on the area or number of components.
Mylar comes in thickness of 3 and 4 mil.
Kapton comes in thickness of 3 mil only.
Visit the following site for detail
http://www.applied-electronics.com
Regards
Applied Electronics
SMTStencils:
gussy:
Those figures are very good to know! I try out some of your stencils when you get kaptonhello gussy,
Now Applied Electronics provide both Mylar and Kapton SMT stencils. Starting this coming Thursday (June 25th), we will take order for Kapton too. You can choose either Mylar or Kapton of size 8.5x11 inch (actual size for Kapton is 8.5x12) without any restriction on the area or number of components.
Mylar comes in thickness of 3 and 4 mil.
Kapton comes in thickness of 3 mil only.
Visit the following site for detail
http://www.applied-electronics.com
Regards
Applied Electronics
Just to let the lurkers here know. We did receive three test stencils from Applied Electronics, and they do compare to a metal stencil from the same gerber. This says a lot about their capabilities.
We will be testing some of their stencils for a few of our in house items.
James L
Good to know.
Now to see if Applied Electronics ship to Australia!