--- In
Homebrew_PCBs@yahoogroups.com, "peripherin" <peripherin@...>
wrote:
>
> Over the last 10 years I have been producing home PCB's with
varying
> degrees of complexity useing the traditional photo exposure method
> with my local print shop providing 2400dpi negatives. I can
reliabley
> turn out boards with 35 micron tracks in 1oz copper which seems to
be
> the minimum width that most manufacturers can acieve reliably.
> However I have noticed that Direct resist printing seems to be
giving
> some very good results with the mispro inks.
> My question is what inks are availble in the UK as I can not seem
to
> find MISpro over here? Also has anybody looked at the Epson R285
> printer as it prints CD's DVD which means the feed rollers must be
> far enough apart to accept PCB's. I am going to look at one this
> afternoon so will post a comment if it is suitable.
> Going back to the inks has anyone tryed the Acrylic inks as I
> understand they can be made inkjet compatible? and should also be
> etch resistant.
> I have tryed the laser toner tranfer method several times but I
have
> found it does not work to well with ground planned boards due to
> toner density which after trying on several different media types
and
> printers I can not improve. It however gives some impressive
results
> with tracks down to 17 microns reliabley and cleanly being etched.
I
> have ordered a negative from my local print shop just to try useing
> the best media I have found which they say will have uniform toner
> density so we will see how this turns out.
>
> Anyhow if anybody has tryed an Epson R285 I like to know what the
> results were like and what ink you have use?
>
Update: Ok spent the afternoon really upsetting the sales person in
PC world by making him demonstrate two laser printers HP1018 and 1022.
I also got a demonstration of the CD printing facility on the R285
and all I can say is that it is that the way the feed mechnism works
is slightly different from what i expected yes the rollers are
further apart but because of the issues over board size I did not go
any further with this mainly because if I was to use this for
production boards it would use to many processes and again prove as
complex to fix the ink as a normal UV method. If someone has the time
then it may be a great printer to modify. I have however been told by
our by someone I trust that photoresist can be printed from a normal
inkjet cartridge but because the liquid is to viscous it produces to
larger droplet size. Aparently thier is a company who is researching
into produceing a Piezoelectric print head for PCB's.
http://www.electronicsweekly.com/Articles/2005/04/14/34905/pcb+maker+plans+ink-jet+printing.htm?
Unfortunately I do not know what has become of this company anybody
know ?
Getting back to the laser printers I followed this up again as
talking to the salesman some of the modern lasers printers increase
toner density in large areas of Mono. If you look at the resulting
prints from different printers you can see more matt areas within the
large areas of ground plans which I have found porous when etching.
With the HP's this does not seem to be the case and remember I am not
using special paper I am talking about printing onto standard 90gsm
paper.
Anyhow I have taken the sample prints on three types of paper home to
etch. I have used 90 GSM laser paper Xerox, Epson photo matt paper
and staples photo basic glossy.
I also asked about life of the printer by useing non reccommended
papers they said that it would wear the fuser and tonner drum faster
and possibley the rollers but considering the printers are sub £100
thats not really an issue.
Anyhow I will comment on the results latter.