To be noticed, give us a call: (850) 547-0102 or e-mail: wwdr@worldwidedrillingresource.com 12 DECEMBER 2020 WorldWide Drilling Resource ® Often Smaller is Better by Britt Storkson Owner, P2FlowLLC In times past, we have been conditioned to associate bigger with better. Years ago, bigger cars suggested affluence, and most of the time a bigger product of any type was more expensive. Big things often create problems little things don’t. Big cars, in addition to being more expensive to buy and fuel, are often more expensive to repair and more difficult to maneuver - like putting one in a parking space. Now if you really need the big product to do something you need, like a truck to haul bulky items such as furniture, then by all means, buy one. Buying something big just to have something big, may be a personal preference, but it isn’t practical - like the monster truck which is 10 feet tall and 25 feet long whose sole occupant is a 5-foot, 95-pound woman. Fitting the product to the task is a good practice regardless of the industry. Boeing is ending production of the 747 aircraft, not because it was a problem airplane. With the advent of large, twin-engine airliners which were more fuel-efficient and required less (and less expensive) maintenance made the decision to switch a no-brainer. Electronic equipment manufacturing is also moving in that direction with electronic parts getting smaller and often requiring microscopes and special machinery to handle the parts. Some parts are so small they look like grains of pepper. The image at the top of this article shows a MOSFET (metal oxide semiconductor field effect transistor) placed on a British postage stamp for size comparison. This type of transistor is basically a voltage-controlled semiconductor switch, and has many uses. Electronics started with through-hole printed circuit boards (PCBs) where the leads on the device were pushed through holes in the PCB and soldered to the PCB. Now everything is moving to surface-mounted devices (SMT) where the part is soldered to pads plated on the board, and there are no holes. To the right is a photo comparison of throughhole and surface-mount resistors. It’s wise to use surface-mount parts wherever possible, mostly because they cost less because they use less material. They do have other advantages, as well. They are better suited to automated assembly using “pick and place” machinery, and their small size often allows smaller (read: less expensive) and simpler PCB construction. Please note these smaller parts do not compromise the circuit performance in any way, but do make a big difference in cost. These new technologies are a win-win for both the producer and the consumer, and just one more example of where bigger is not necessarily better. Britt Britt Storkson may be contacted via e-mail to michele@worldwidedrillingresource.com
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