- Paper/PCB Size
The size of the PCB is around 150mm x 115mm. The Xerox manual says, that the minimum paper size should be: 75mm x 127mm - I am in the range, so that's good. My PCB is bigger than an A6. - Which Side Gets the Ink:
It is an experiment. You load a paper with a writing on it, and print something on it. The ink goes to the back of the paper, so I will need to load my PCB with the copper facing down. - Paper/PCB Thickness
In theory, the width of the PCB is 150um. So I looked up the supported papers in the manual, and searched for the thickest one was: Phaser Professional Solid Ink Business Cards, 225 g/m2 (80 lb. Cover) Now I needed to map this information to a thickness. Unfortunately, I failed to find a datasheet for that paper. However, I found this chart which basically tells me that 150 um is around 110 g/m2. I am convinced, my PCB will fit in, this beast can deal with 225g/m2 paper. - Print
The print was successful, see this photo:
And, if you want to see a video of the steps above, be my guest:
Friday, 31 May 2013
Direct PCB printing with Xerox Phaser 8400
Almost a year ago, I purchased a beautiful Xerox Phaser 8400 with 250000 pages already printed, because I wanted to try out the direct PCB printing method. I purchased some "pyralux" blank PCBs from here: Tech-place.
Now, after one and a half year, it is time to try out what is possible.
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so what do you recommend for phaser printers? are they worthy enough to be part of every organization? any additional tips you want to mention?
ReplyDeleteHi Jane. I only had experience with a rather old used printer that already printed around 250000 pages when arrived to me. The heat up process was wasting a lot of ink, the whole machine was a big beast - having said that I was not using it as it was intended to use - no office use, just printed some pcbs, turned on and off frequently. I would say for PCBs it's an overkill, and does not worth it. I would rather go with the toner transfer/photo method for hobby - or even better, get it manufactured by someone. Please note that I'm only a hobbyist, not a professional. Would I recommend it for normal office use? I don't think so, and it's mainly because it's being too complicated, too many moving parts. Check the supply costs as well to see where your per page price is.
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