What is a through-hole assembly?

Through-hole assembly is a method for producing electronic circuits in which the components are installed through leads. It refers to the mounting process that inserts the leads to the drilled holes and solders the components on the board by wave soldering or manual soldering.

Over time, PCB design moved from single-sided boards to double-sided boards, then came the multi-layer boards. Through-hole assembly is difficult to meet the requirements of modern electronics. Nowadays, SMT technology has largely replaced through-hole construction in PCB manufacturing. But through-hole assembly is still irreplaceable in some applications, such as electrolytic capacitors, connectors, and large transformers.

Automated and Manual Through-Hole Assembly

We use automated through-hole placement techniques for radial and axial components, preferably for small-volume production. The layout of the auto-placement area is intended to reduce material handling and labor. The manual placement technique is used by our engineers to deal with compound through-hole assembly challenges. Wave-soldering is used for both Surface mount and Through-hole components, but we prefer to use it for simple through-hole components. In mixed technology boards, the first board is wave-soldered and then it is reflowed.

The features of the through-hole assembly

· High reliability

The through-hole assembly provides higher environmental stress because the components are held on the board by using leads inserting into the holes rather than simply being soldered on the PCBs’ surface as the SMT components. Thus, through-hole assembly offers a more robust physical connection, making it the preferred process for the medical, military and aerospace industry that have high-reliability requirements.

· Easy for manual operation

Through-hole components are easier to replace or adjust their position, making this assembly method widely used in the applications that need PCB testing and PCB prototyping.

· Higher durability

With high heat resistance and high-stress tolerance, through-hole components often appear in industrial machinery and equipment.

FASTPCBA is fully capable of providing prototype and small quantity, through-hole PCB assembly services at the highest quality level possible in a cost effective manner.  If you need more information about through-hole technology for your PCB PCBA project, just contact us.