Dangers of Not Recycling PCBs

That PCB boards are found in all types of electronics is clear, but what’s perhaps not so clear is why there is so much emphasis on recycling them. As mentioned before, PCBs are a treasure of valuable materials that can be recovered and reused through the process of electronic waste recycling.

Actually, the dangers of not recycling e-waste or just sending to landfills always ignored by people, but the dangers are severe than you can imagine. Electronics contain plenty of hazardous substances, so if we just sending them to landfills, they easily get released into the environment and leak into the groundwater which will potentially pollute the water we drink and pose a serious threat to human health.

Electronics recycling is the most effective way to not just prevent pollution and possible ill-health, but also conserve natural resources. When we recycle valuable materials from electronics, we eliminate the need for extracting these elements from the nature. While resource conservation is a direct advantage of recycling electronic waste, cost and energy savings are the indirect benefits.

Learn more about how to tackle e-waste like PCBs, please visit www.epcb.com

E-Waste

E-waste or electronic waste is the left over PCBs, components, PVC or plastic cases, body, etc., of your old electronic appliances, such as a TV, refrigerator, dish washer that you have thrown out. It is one of the fastest growing types of waste produced on the planet. According to a report on e-waste, by 2017, all of that year’s end-of-life refrigerators, TVs, mobile phones, computers, monitors, e-toys and other products with a battery or electrical cord worldwide could fill a line of 40-ton trucks end-to-end on a highway straddling three quarters of the Equator, the weight equivalent of 200 Empire State Buildings or 11 Great Pyramids of Giza. The US has the world’s highest figure of 9.4 million tons and China generated the second highest e-waste total of 7.3 million tons. The report also states that the total amount of e-waste generated by 2017 will be 65.4 million metric tons.

What can we do to stop the severe situation? Well, the simple answer is stop over-consumption. But that could take a long time to actually come into action. The next big thing is too start recycling every bit of those electronic appliances and gadgets that our leaving our house. We can open up the body of each of these appliances take out the PCBs and reuse the components.

Learn how to reuse printed circuit boards, welcome to www.epcb.com

Surface-mount Technology

Surface-mount technology or SMT is a method for producing electronic circuits in which the components are mounted or placed directly onto the surface of printed circuit boards (PCBs). In PCB industry it has largely replaced the through-hole technology construction method of fitting components with wire leads into holes in the circuit board. Surface-mount technology has several competitive advantages, and they are listed as follows:

1. The cost of surface-mount technology can lower 30%~50% than other technologies from saving materials, energy, equipment, labor, time, etc.

2. The efficiency of SMT can easily be increased by using auto machine. 

3. SMT has good high-frequency performance which can largely reduce the interference of radio-frequency and electromagnetism. 

4. SMT is more reliable that it has high resistance capability, and low soldering defect rate. 

More info. about SMT, pls visit www.epcb.com

Protecting Printed Circuit Boards from Surges

To maintain the standards you set for quality and performance, it is important to ensure that the components on your PCBs are protected from the elements. Most protection on PCBs is used to guard against the elements such as high temperatures and humidity. However, at times electromagnetic interference and other forces can generate transients that can destroy components. There are different types of surges that can occur, which is why it is important to understand how to best protect your PCBs during the design phase.

Electrostatic Discharge – Also known as ESD, electrostatic discharge is the most common surge. It is caused by a buildup of charge on the equipment or people near it and can produce a surge that damages or destroys semiconductor components.

Electrical Fast Transient – EFT bursts happen when an inductive load is opened. Inductors store energy and when the circuit is opened the energy is released, which can also have damaging effects.

Expect the above two types of pulses, electromagnetic interference, lightning and other forces all can disrupt electronics. Developing PCB designs that protect against these surges help engineers maintain circuit integrity and efficiency in the application.

Wiring Tips for Your Multi-Layer Printed Circuit Board

When you are designing multi-layer boards for your product, it is crucial to have a design that allows for maximum efficiency while keeping the PCBs footprint at a minimum. To accomplish this there are a few wiring tips that you can keep in mind in order to keep a clean design that will help you achieve the functionality you need. Above three lines, it is a good idea to try to have line loops through each point so that your printed circuit board is easy to test and wire length is as short as possible. Be sure to place your components as neatly and uniformly as possible on your PCBs so that wiring can be completed in straight lines and at simple angles. This helps avoid wasted space on your PCB so that you can get the optimum usability from each layer.

Tips for Cleaning Dust

If you notice that your circuit board is collecting dust or grime that keeps it from functioning normally, you may decide to clean the board when you take into consideration the money and time you will spend on purchasing a new one.

There are different methods for cleaning printed circuit boards depending on the type of PCB you have and what dirt or buildup exists. Before you begin to clean your PCB, be aware that any time you do so you run the risk of causing damage to the board and components. Therefore, if the board works normally but is just a bit dusty you must decide if attempting to clean the PCB is worth the risk. For PCBs with only light dust, use an old dry toothbrush, dry paintbrush or the upholstery brush from your vacuum to loosen the dust. Then you can use a can of compressed air to blow the remainder of dust off of the board.

The cleaning process becomes a bit trickier if you have grime on your printed circuit boards. Grime is common with monitor chassis boards that deal with higher temperatures and melting wax from components. Be sure to remove any socketed components before applying detergent and scrubbing mildly to loosen whatever is caked onto your PCB. Since this method may not work 100 percent of the time, it is a good idea to consult a PCB expert to see what you can potentially do to clean your circuit board and get it back into working order. If it cannot be fixed, you will need to place an order for a new board.

Interesting PCB Facts

Have you ever wondered why the solder mask on your printed circuit boards is green? There have been numerous myths and explanations put forward over the years to explain why PCBs are green. We EPCB regard that original masks for PCB were yellow and brown in color but workers easily felt fatigued when they checked circuits on boards for a long time. However, green color could relieve eye tiredness to some extent, so PCB designers decided to use the standard green. Early gramophones and tube style radios used PCBs as far back as the 1920s, but the PCB as we know it today saw first widespread use after World War II.

Recycle Old PCBs

As we all know, environment pollution is severely serious which does harm to people’s health. So we should do our part to protect the environment as both an individual and a part of our company which will allow us all to conserve valuable resources, reduce energy consumption and create a cleaner environment for our future. We can achieve our objectives by recycling old printed circuit boards which are made from chemicals and materials that are hazardous to the environment. Those raw materials are illegal to dump without special treatment, because if these items make their way into a landfill they will just sit there, allowing the chemicals to potentially seep into the soil or get into water supplies. That’s the reason why we appeal to PCB users and manufacturers to recycle old PCBs. We have the responsibility to ensure that the raw materials are properly disposed of and meet regulations in order to protect our environment.