Can FFC cable and FPC cable replace each other?

Many people ask whether FFC cable and FPC can replace each other? In fact, the friend who asks this question must not know much about this industry. At present or for a long time in the future, neither of the ffc and fpc flat cables can replace the other. The two flat cables will coexist and complement each other.



In this way, many friends and even some friends who have not been involved in the field of ffc cabling for a long time do not agree with our conclusion. Let me analyze it according to the following:



The process of FFC flat wire and fpc flat wire is obviously different. FFc soft flat wire is formed by pressing a group of flat copper wires arranged according to a specific spacing with two layers of hot-melt PET film or PI film on the high temperature wheel, while fpc flat wire is formed by etching on a whole layer of PI film covered with copper film to form different line structures.



1、 The complexity of the line structure of ffc flat cable and fpc flat cable is different. Obviously, for some complicated curve line structure, fpc line must be the first choice, while ffc line can only form some straight lines. When forming complex curve line structure, fpc cable layout must be selected. Relatively speaking, fpc flat cable is more flexible than ffc flat cable.



Apply the fpc flexible flat cable of the double-sided board of smart phone

2、 The temperature resistance of ffc flat cable is different from that of fpc flat cable. Generally, the temperature resistance of ffc flat wire made of hot-melt adhesive film with PET as the base material is only 80 ℃ or 105 ℃, while the temperature resistance of ffc flat wire made of hot-melt adhesive film with PI as the base material is 120 ℃. However, the fpc cable can withstand the temperature above 200 ℃. Therefore, fpc flat cable is more resistant to high temperature than ffc flat cable.



If you only look at the above two points, it seems that the fpc flat cable can kill the ffc flat cable in a second. In front of the powerful function of the fpc flat cable, the ffc flat cable seems to have a way to the grave. Is it true? No! Please continue to look at the following two points:



3、 The cost of FFC cable is different from that of Fpc cable. The fpc flat line can be made of curve structure or straight line structure, but no matter how simple the structure of the fpc flat line is, each specification needs to open a mold. A set of ordinary fast wire mold costs at least 1500 yuan, and the price of a slightly higher precision medium wire mold costs 2500 to 3000 yuan. If the customer has higher requirements for dimensional accuracy, a set of slow wire mold costs more than 5000 yuan. However, the ffc wiring does not need to open a mold at all, which saves a lot of money in terms of cost.



4、 The efficiency of FFC flat cable is different from that of FPC flat cable. The production efficiency of ffc flat wire is very high, while the production efficiency of fpc flat wire is very low compared with that of fpc flat wire due to its more complex process and many processes. In addition, if it is a simple curve structure, the ffc flat line can be broken, and there is no need to make fpc flat line.



FFC line layout of folding line processing printer

5、 The conductor material of FFC flat cable is different from that of FPC flat cable. The conductor of fpc flat wire is to etch the whole layer of copper foil, and the general thickness of copper foil: if the thickness of single panel copper foil is 12U, 18U, 35U; The copper foil thickness of double-sided plate is 12U, 18U, 35U and 70U. Therefore, for single-panel fpc flat cable, the copper foil thickness can only reach 35U at most. The conductor thickness of ffc flat cable can be 35U, 50U and 100U. If the terminal demander wants the conductor to pass more current and the conductor impedance must be small, the conductor with larger cross-sectional area must be used, but generally the conductor cannot be too far away, so that the relatively thick conductor of the ffc cable can show advantages. To sum up, at present, neither ffc cable nor fpc cable can replace the other. They will coexist for a long time and serve the function of connecting everything.