From the accuracy point of view, however, this isn’t the most desirable choice as the output is determined by aspects such as the viscosity of the ink, humidity, pressure of the stroke, and more. This is typically used when the line width is greater than 7mil and registration tolerance is 5 mil. YOU MAY ALSO LIKE: What Are Gerber Files In PCB? 3 Types of Silk Screen Printing Technology 1. Safety precautions such as high voltage.Identify circuitry including testing points, interconnections, and more.The role of PCB silk screening is important to So, what is the pure definition of silkscreen in PCB? What Is Silkscreen In PCB?Īn effective silkscreen is a layer of ink trace that acts as an efficient map with the right calibrations and information of various essential components such as logos, symbols, PCB components, marks, test points, etc. Not only does it contain valuable information about the location of components, but it also contains other indispensable information such as identifiers, labels, and more. And if you’re actually good at drawing and design? You can become a force to be reckoned with.When it comes to PCB Manufacturing, the importance of Silkscreens cannot be overstated. (The Sweep, Urchin, Smitheii and the Draculad are good examples of this). I just like putting Pop Team Epic characters on my gadgets, but if you master tools like KiCad, you can not only print silkscreens, you can create elaborate art that integrates the existing copper layers into the art itself. The examples I have laid out are fairly simple. I have gotten domesday duplicators made along with multiple arcade sticks and trackball PCBs (for complicated boards, you may need some soldering and assembly done at the factory). But of course, this goes beyond simply making cheap keyboards. Alternatively, you can support one of the many fine keyboard suppliers. If you got a keyboard, you are going to need keyboard parts, so it makes sense to order those on AliExpress at the same time so they get there whenever. When it arrives, it’ll come vacuum-packed in a little box and be ready to solder and assemble. It’s definitely a premium, but it’s very handsome, and you can do some very neat stuff with it. OSH Park, for example, offers a beautiful black “ After Dark” PCB with a clear solder mask ( the polymer applied to the top of copper traces - this means you’ll be able to see the copper under it). I love a board that pops, so I tend to go with Blue FR4 with a white silkscreen or White FR4 with a black silkscreen, but the options vary from manufacturer to manufacturer. Depending on who you buy from, it should generate a preview where it’ll show you what the board looks like and give you several options for materials, number of layers, colors, and more. When you are done, just zip the files up and upload the compressed archive to your manufacturer of choice. If you are ordering from JLCPCB specifically, there are actually handy plugins for JLCPCB and PCBway that you can use to simplify the entire process. When you are done, you are going to want to generate your gerber files using KiCad’s fabrication options. Place your silk on a relatively clean and empty part of the board or get creative - it’s design! To preview how the board is going to look, you can open up the 3D viewer in KiCad and rotate your board around. This is handy if you want an image on both sides of a board. If you want the silkscreen on the other layer, press “F,” and it will flip the silk to the other side of the board. The layers you are going to be editing on are usually called “F.Silkscreen” and “B.Silkscreen” for front and back, respectively. If you see something that looks like “G***,” double click your silkscreen and select properties, then untick “visible” to make that part of the footprint invisible. If your silkscreen is too big or small for the area you have selected, refine it in one of the previous steps and try again. You can use the filter up top to quickly narrow down your choices to the art you just generated. This brings up all the “footprints” in your library, which includes any silkscreens you may have previously generated. Once your PCB is loaded up, you are going to press “O” or click the “load footprint” button on the right-hand side of the toolbar.
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