Image: Ni000 Hollow rivets for Plated Through Hole PCB repair and small-scale manufacturing

Description: The making of physical contacts between the two layers of a printed-circuit board is generally performed by a chemical process finally resulting in a plated through hole, which makes the electrical contact and is able to embed the parts pin without need to solder at both sides of the PCB. For purposes of repairing a PCB, or to produce one in a DIY setting, or as a rapid in-house prototype, the traditional hollow rivet is a fair choice, and this is my product to describe and to promote. The tubular hollow rivets need not to be pressed with special equipment, simply, they will be inserted from the upper layer, their heads will be soldered and on the lower side, the rivet's unmodified straight part, part's pin and the soldering point will be connected by the soldering. A small "sieve" will make rivets stand in one direction, so you can pick them up onto simple wires to use as inserting instruments. Pre-fabricate a couple of wires holding about 20 rivets each. The rivet will be inserted, so the head stands off 0.5 mm from the PCB; 0.6 mm soldering wire is used, a toothpick (is a good choice, self-standing in the rivet's hole) prevents unwanted filling, and, in the immediate next step while the applied tin is hot, you will push in the rivet to 0.1 mm from the PCB. After all rivets have been inserted and their heads have been fixed with soldering, the electronic parts will be inserted. On the lower side, pin, rivet and soldering-pad will be amalgamated. The actual rivets have 1.4 mm heads and an 0.8 mm inner diameter so they are suited for ICs and smaller discrete items. The head of the rivets is designed to be a countersunk screw - this make spilling solder into the hole less probable and makes inserting multi-pin items easy.
Title: Ni000 Hollow rivets for Plated Through Hole PCB repair and small-scale manufacturing
Credit: Own work
Author: Ossip Groth
Usage Terms: Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0
License: CC BY-SA 3.0
License Link: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0
Attribution Required?: Yes