What Is a Substrate Divider?
A substrate divider is a piece of equipment that divides a number of substrates on a sheet board at the same time.
The use of substrate dividers increases production efficiency. There are several types of dividers, including router processing, dicing processing, stamping, and pressing and cutting. Depending on the purpose, there are facilities for low-volume or high-volume production, and initial costs can be low or high.
Printed circuit boards include glass, composite, and paper substrates, and substrate dividers can process all of them. However, there are substrate dividers that cannot process certain substrates, so it is necessary to select the appropriate substrate divider for your application.
Uses of Substrate Dividers
Substrate dividers divide sheet substrates into numerous substrates. Examples of substrate dividers include router dividers and dicing dividers, as well as press dividers and push-off dividers.
Router Splitter
Using a router tool for dividing the board, rotate the tool to divide the position to be divided.
Dicing and Dividing Machine
While rotating the grinding wheel, divide the specified position.
Press Divider
The blade for dividing is inserted in accordance with the dividing position of the board, and the board is divided by pressing.
Push-Cut Type Divider
For small production runs, substrates are passed between the upper and lower rotating circular blades and divided by the gap between the blades.
Principle of Substrate Dividers
Since the principle of substrate dividers varies from type to type, we will divide them into the following three categories.
1. Router Splitter
Router dividers can divide PCBs with a thickness of 0.4 mm to 1.6 mm, and can break in vertical, horizontal, diagonal, and other directions. Entering the coordinates you want to split into the device makes it easy to change the model of the board, but there is a lot of powder due to the router process. When splitting a board, whiskers of fibers of the board appear on the split surface, but cutting the board twice can reduce them. The speed of splitting is slow due to the limited height of the fixtures to be mounted on the board.
2. Press Division
Press partitioning can be done quickly because all the partitioning points on one piece can be partitioned in one shot at the same time. Even if the components to be mounted on the printed circuit board are high, they can be divided. Less powder is generated during division, making it suitable for high-volume production. However, the production cost is high because a die for dividing is required, and the stress on the board generated during dividing is high.
3. Push-Off Division
Push-off dividing is suited for cases where the production volume is not large, since the initial investment in router and press dividing is large. It is not suitable for dividing paper substrates.
Types of Substrate Dividers
Substrate dividers can be classified by method and target workpiece: For V-groove applications, they are classified into upper/lower disk cut type and linear split type. For perforation, there are local punching type, precision press blade type dividing type, and router type.
Substrate dividers can also be classified by substrate layout. They can split V-grooves near the edge or in the center, divide boards horizontally and vertically in a matrix, divide boards with cutouts in the middle of V-grooves or power boards with tall components around V-grooves, divide small amounts of perforated boards with few connections, and divide large amounts of assembled boards with many connections.
How to Select a Substrate Divider
Compatible equipment should be selected according to the method, target workpiece, and board layout.
The upper/lower disc cut type uses upper/lower rotating circular blades to cut V-grooves. There are two types: manual and motorized. In the manual type, the blade spontaneously turns by the force of the blade pushing against the substrate, while in the motorized type, the blade is forced to turn. The linear split type is a method that combines a linear blade and a rotating circular blade. The lower blade can be set to split the V-groove portion of the substrate, and the cutting line does not move.
The local punching type uses a T-shaped blade to punch off the connection. It is small and easy, but not efficient and not suitable for mass production processing. In the precision press-blade parting type, the upper and lower press-blades are used to punch out the connection in a single operation. This method is suitable for mass-production processing of assembled boards because the connections can be broken up at once. In the router type, a high-speed rotating router bit is used to shave off the connections. This method places less stress on the board, but requires the collection of chips.