Recap: The Raspberry Pi 5 was launched in 2023, delivering greater than twice the efficiency of the earlier era. The board was additionally instrumental in bringing a small, but important change in how the UK basis is definitely printing its single-board computer systems. By altering the way in which Raspberry Pi boards are assembled and parts are soldered, the maker improved its operations in what it described as “huge” methods.
Raspberry Pi {Hardware} Engineer Roger Thornton defined the change in a latest weblog put up. Working with its manufacturing companion Sony, the UK group regularly applied a soldering approach referred to as intrusive reflow soldering.
The brand new technique improved manufacturing high quality, diminished e-waste, and lowered the corporate’s environmental influence, Thornton acknowledged.
Intrusive reflow was first used to provide Raspberry Pi 5 boards and is now being utilized to earlier fashions as properly. This new manufacturing course of resolved the inefficiency points brought on by earlier soldering strategies, which relied on distinct through-hole connectors and floor mount know-how (SMT) machines.
Via-hole connectors require sturdy solder joints made by means of the printed circuit board and can’t be dealt with by the SMT machines that place particular person components.
Within the early days of Raspberry Pi manufacturing, components had been inserted by hand earlier than being dealt with by robots. A subsequent soldering step, the place boards handed by means of a molten solder bathtub, was used to safe the whole lot in place.
The enhancements led to a 50 p.c discount in product returns, a 15 p.c enhance in manufacturing pace, and a yearly discount of 43 tonnes of CO₂ emissions.
The entire course of was complicated, pricey, and time-consuming. Now, due to intrusive reflow, through-hole connectors may be positioned utilizing the identical machines that set up SMT components. Raspberry Pi perfected the strategy after a number of trials, adjusting the solder paste stencil and refining the PCB structure till the corporate’s high quality requirements had been met.
The enhancements led to a 50 p.c discount in product returns, a 15 p.c enhance in manufacturing pace, and a yearly discount of 43 tonnes of CO₂ emissions. Raspberry Pi’s manufacturing now requires much less equipment and stock, with no manufacturing line interruptions because of work-in-process stock.
Raspberry Pi says that intrusive reflow soldering was key to eliminating “wasteful” intermediate steps within the manufacturing course of. The corporate now highlights its diminished environmental influence and improved effectivity, which align with its ongoing efforts to turn out to be a extra accountable and sustainable group.
