Homebrew PCBs

Note that what you are proposing was a cause of reliability problems with
rivets in the early days of PCB manufacturing.  You are even making it worse
with the soldermask.

 

As you are using them there is only a mechanical connection with the top
runner even after soldering.  After temperature cycling, vibration, and so
on some rivets become intermittent.

The industrial solution was to change to split rivets.  They look ugly but
solder wicks up the center and through the split leaks out onto the top
copper trace so it forms a reliable solder junction.

I used to work for Motorola and saw the problem and the solution first hand.

 

Without the soldermask the regular rivets can be soldered to the top trace
as a secondary operation.

Bertho

 

From:  James  Sent: Wednesday, March 20, 2013 23:27



Particularly I want to use rivets because I think I should be able to 
apply (uv cure ink stuff) soldermask right over the top of them for a 
very clean appearance, and I think they will be easier to use under SMD 
devices.

Also, because I like to try new things.

Now thanks to the previous poster I know that these things are made by 
Bungard, searching for that is turning up more hits, I found this blog 
using 0.6mm ones..
http://amphibiousthoughts.com/blog/micro-rivets-for-soldering






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