Recently one of my top manager ask to mount the shielding-can or call shielding-cover directly on the Printed Circuit Board to instead of mount the shielding-clip or call shielding-frame on the board first then cover the shieling-can. He said this “new process” is more cheap and can reach better RF (Radiation Frequency) performance. Also most of current popular cell phone board apply this solution.
Well, I must say yes. Directly mount the shielding-can on the board is cheaper and save labor hours as compare it with mount one component (frame or clip) on the board first then install another component (can or cover) to cover it. But this new requirement also got lots of negative feedback from SMT factory and repair center. Because of directly mount shielding-can on board means that repair guy must de-solder the shielding can first before repair the component under the shielding can. It make the repair job more difficult and may give more trouble and damage the board during repair.
Related article: The benefit to use shielding clips to instead of shielding frame
First of all, with the rapid growth of mobile phone technology, the Electronic Manufacturing Service (EMS) in mainland China sometimes meet serious labor shortage. Second, the Industry 4.0 promotes the requirement of factory automation for each EMS. Therefore, many parts which cannot adopt SMT reflow process are requested to fulfill Paste-In-Hole process (PIH process), such as the type-A USB connectors, Ethernet connector, power supply sockets, transformers, and so on. Originally, most of these kind of devices were touch-up soldered after SMT process. 
Someday, there is one question came from my manager, “Is there any difference or influence on the process and design if we changet the SMDs (Surface Mount Devices) to THDs (Through Hole Devices) type and go through the PIH(Paste-In-Hole) process?”
