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weird request involving painting PCB's — Parallax Forums

weird request involving painting PCB's

RavenkallenRavenkallen Posts: 1,057
edited 2010-07-29 10:33 in General Discussion
Hey, all. This request might sound kind of weird, but here goes. I am looking to paint a few of my PCB's( In hopes of selling them once i start my small business) but i have no idea what kind of paint/ marker to use. I used a permanent sharpie last time and it came out kinda lame. I just need to paint the component side and i don't know if i need something special or anything like that. The color has to be purple/preferably cheap and easy to find/ buy in quantity. Any ideas? Or maybe i was thinking that i could print something off a computer and then iron it on.... Maybe? Any ideas accepted. You guys are the best and you know ityeah.gif

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Comments

  • T ChapT Chap Posts: 4,223
    edited 2010-07-25 18:19
    How are you building the boards? If you use a PCB fab house some of them allow custom colors. Painting yourself is a mess anyway you go about it. But, if you absolutely must paint it purple and can't find a company to do it, the neatest way to go about it without putting paint on the pads would be to have a silk screen made and screen enamel over it. You can also have the same screen contain the text and other graphics that you can run in white enamel. Using the silk screen is pretty simple after you do a few practice runs, the screens are easy to order, I do it all the time and it makes for a pro looking result. If this is of interest let me know and I can post more details as well as who to call for the paints, screens, etc.
  • LeonLeon Posts: 7,620
    edited 2010-07-25 18:21
    You can get lots of different resist colours, of course. I don't think I've seen purple, but it might be available.

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    Leon Heller
    Amateur radio callsign: G1HSM
  • Phil Pilgrim (PhiPi)Phil Pilgrim (PhiPi) Posts: 23,514
    edited 2010-07-25 21:10
    I've used aerosol Krylon fast-dry enamel to paint PCBs white, and it worked fine. (This was for an LED strip light, and the board was part of the reflector.) I had to cover all the component pads with masking tape first. This wasn't the awful prospect it sounds like, though, since the board was designed with this in mind, and the component pads were clustered away from the part that had to be white.

    -Phil
  • RavenkallenRavenkallen Posts: 1,057
    edited 2010-07-25 21:17
    Ah, thanks for the suggestions. Fast dry enamel sounds kind of promising. Where can you find such a item? I just need something that is easy to apply and kinda on the cheap side. The sharpie just doesn't cut it.

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    Propeller + Picaxe = Romeo & Juliet
  • ercoerco Posts: 20,260
    edited 2010-07-25 23:50
    I second Phil's suggestion. I used aerosol Krylon to paint a specially-shaped PC board before installing components for one of my Trinity Firefighting robots, pic attached. No problems at all.

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  • Jorge PJorge P Posts: 385
    edited 2010-07-26 01:16
    Nail polish works great, and most is transparent. The non metalic kind. When I was in R&D that is how we would mark screws to detect tampering . Although I would test certain brands to make sure they are non conductive...

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    http://WhatsAvailable.org Software and Gadgets for Windows 7.
  • RavenkallenRavenkallen Posts: 1,057
    edited 2010-07-29 02:40
    Okay, so i bought some krylon, satin finish, spray-on paint. i am gonna try it out tomorrow and see if it works.

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    Propeller + Picaxe = Romeo & Juliet
  • skylightskylight Posts: 1,915
    edited 2010-07-29 10:21
    I'd plug up all the holes with fuse wire or clippings from components first dry paint may hinder you inserting components
    or perhaps the intention is to spray over the components too? If so this may insulate some components from cooling?
  • LoopyBytelooseLoopyByteloose Posts: 12,537
    edited 2010-07-29 10:33
    A PCB jobber uses a printing process similar to silk screen printing to get all the labels on a board.
    There really is no reason that you cannot use the same process to print one or more colors of art work complete with masking off important circuit areas.

    If you look at Eagle Cad, you may get an idea of how to insert a graphic file into existing PCB production data so that it is all just a matter of ordering the boards.

    The advantages would be that you are assured that the 'paint' is compatible with the PCB and that visual quality would be the same over an entire production run.

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    Ain't gadetry a wonderful thing?

    aka G. Herzog [noparse][[/noparse] 黃鶴 ] in Taiwan
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