Advantages
PCB milling has advantages for both prototyping and also for some specialist PCB designs.
Prototyping can provide a fast-turnaround board production process without the need for wet processing. If a CNC mill is already used for drilling, this single machine can carry out both parts of the process.
Some PCBs, requiring extensive drilling or profiling of the board outline are particularly suitable for production by milling. Where the tracks must precisely follow the board shape, using the same CNC mill for both reduces registration and scaling errors. Many boards that are simple for milling would be almost impossible by wet etching and manual drilling afterwards.
In mass production, milling is unlikely to replace etching although the use of CNC is already standard practice for drilling the boards.
Read more about this topic: Printed Circuit Board Milling
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