PTP Vs PCB – Why PCBs are a Smarter Choice?

Printed circuit boards or what more commonly is known as PCBs are one of the most important electronic support for devices, and gadgets in today’s electronics industry. In fact, most of the routine items that we use in our everyday lives are supported by PCBs.

However, printed circuit boards aren’t the only electronic support that we got today. Point-to-point (PTP) is yet another electronic support recommended by many individuals. However, printed circuit boards are a smarter choice than PTP support constructions.

Here we will be looking at the difference between PTP support and printed circuit boards, and why PCBs are a smarter support mechanism.

Determining the Difference between PTP and PCB:

As you might already know, printed circuit boards are manufactured of copper boards with different components including traces, pads, tracks etc. These components are attached (soldered) to the board through tracks. Most commonly, printed circuit boards are designed using an automated software and manufacturing process.

PTP support construction comes with mainly same components as in printed circuit boards, however, instead of tracks joining the components of the circuit in PCBs, an expert is necessary to make connections between the components in case of PTP. That’s why you might here PTP being referred as “hard-wiring”.

Now, for the simple reason of being time-extensive, PTP isn’t a recommended electronic support construction for most industries. Very few industries choose PTP over PCB, and most often these are specialty industries, such as instrument amps. In case of instrument amps, PTP is favored as musicians take the sound from a PTP discernable than from a PCB unit.

Despite the preference of music industry for PTP support construction, there are various benefits of printed circuit boards for various applications.

 

PTP

Printed Circuit Board Advantages:

Printed circuit boards are certainly the best suited electronic support available today. The preference for printed circuit boards for electronic support isn’t for no reason, and PCBs offer various benefits including:

  1. METICULOUS MANUFACTURING

In PTP construction, each component is manufactured individually, which means there is little control over the quality of the manufactured component. This reduced the reliability of PTP, depending upon the person who design/manufacture the component.

Alternatively, in case of the printed circuit board, the automated process enables meticulous manufacturing levels with few engineering flaws. This use of automated software even before the designing and manufacturing process ensure that the optimal engineering variables are kept in consideration and the final design is ideally suited for the intended support needed.

 

 

 

  1. RELIABLE PERFORMANCE

Though the components that made up PTP are PCBs are same for the most part, there is a considerable difference when it comes to reliability and performance. Due to the individual manufacturing of components in PTP construction, one cannot be sure of the supporting mechanism or when one component quirks.

In case of printed circuit boards, the automation of design, and manufacturing enable reliability and optimum performance of the board. The machine-made connections are consistent in performance and can outperform PTP counterparts by a long margin.

  1. Affordability

Because of the mechanical work and necessity of an expert for wiring the circuit, PTP construction is a highly expensive electronic support decide. Though the PTP has the benefit of easy repairing of malfunctioned components, the initial cost of the device is a big lay-off for the liking of many industries.

Contrarily, printed circuit boards are much more affordable. The competitiveness of the PCB is so high that even with hard to repair mechanism, it is more affordable to replace the entire PCB than to repair PTP support device.

  1. Scalability

Any mechanically produced item is inherently repulsive of mass production. Since PTP support devices need mechanical support for wiring, they are difficult to mass produce to fulfill the demand.

The design automation and ease of manufacturing make printed circuit board an ideal electronic support device to mass produce and fulfill high demand rates. Manufacturing of PCB is a streamlined process and even an amateur can start producing PCB with minimum guidance, through a DIY project.

  1. EFFICIENT CONSTRUCTION

The construction of PTP involves trial and error. Whereas, the manufacturing of printed circuit boards is a streamlined process and can be easily accomplished with minimum errors.

 

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