Large press fit terminals and board flex

[Psi]

Does anyone have experienced with large 25pin (150A) press-fit terminals and stopping PCB flex.
I'm concerned the board is flexing too much and could cause SMT part failures.

For prototypes I have been pushing them in manually with vice by putting a block of wood behind PCB.

I suspect some sort of a metal jig is required to clamp and hold the PCB flat as they are pushed in but I have no experience with press fit terminals.

I could make the holes a bit larger to reduce stress on PCB but that would make the holes out of spec from what the DS says. They do seem tighter than I would have thought needed but they are correct. (The pcb house was told the spec and that they were press fit holes when PCB was made)

[Jay_Diddy_B]

Hi,

I have some experience with 25-pin press-fit terminals.

I made a backing block like this:




I have made them out of 3D-printed plastic, with a high fill ratio and out of 6061T6 Aluminum. The threaded holes are used align the blocks on a tooling plate.

The terminals must be inserted in one continuous motion.

Regards,

Jay_Diddy_B

[Psi]

The terminals must be inserted in one continuous motion.

Thanks.
Using the vice they definitely were inserted in 3 or 4 starts/stops. So that is probably another issue I have.

I will be buying an arbor press as soon as the lockdown level changes and I can buy one.