Thinking back to my first day working at an electronics assembly factory, I was hired as a Product Engineer. This role is actually quite similar to that of a Process Engineer, but at that time, Workingbear only had experience in IC packaging or Semiconductor assembly and test (OSAT) company — so when it came to assembly line operations, I was totally clueless.
In most PCB (Printed Circuit Board) designs, panels are usually connected using V-cuts or tabs/ribs, and then separated with a V-cut scoring machine or a router de-panel machine. However, besides these two common connection methods, there’s another approach called the stamp hole design. Workingbear personally isn’t a big fan of this method, which is why it hasn’t been covered until now.
The name “stamp hole” comes from its resemblance to a sheet of postage stamps — small holes are drilled along the break line, allowing the boards to be snapped apart by hand or with pliers. This design makes manual de-paneling easy and doesn’t require special equipment, unlike the other two methods that need a scoring or routing machine.
An engineer must be grounded, hands-on, and unafraid to get their hands dirty — learning by doing and using practical experience to verify theory.
Because of his job, Workingbear often visits various professional electronics manufacturing service (EMS) factories and spends a lot of time on production floors. He frequently interacts with process engineers and test engineers. To these engineers, Workingbear always emphasizes two things:
1. Do it yourself.
2. Always ask “why.”
There are many ways to de-panel or remove the edge rails of a PCB, but the simplest and cheapest method is manual V-cut breaking. However, this method can easily lead to uncontrolled quality issues. Before using manual breaking, it’s important to confirm that the board really cannot be processed with a V-cut scoring machine, or that the components on the PCBA are strong enough to handle bending stress without damage.
Anyone who works in the electronics industry should be familiar with the role of a PM — short for Project Management. Almost every company involved in R&D or contract manufacturing has PMs. In fact, not just electronics — most industries have people doing project management.
Some people say PMs are like the locomotive that pulls the whole product or project forward. Others describe them as the lubricant inside a company, smoothing things out when departments clash or have small disagreements. But most PMs probably feel like they’re doing every odd job possible — the “handyman” or “gofer” who takes on everything that no one else wants to do.
