How hot can PCBs get before they melt?

[Culbrelai]

I find materials science to be quite interesting, the fact that a graphics card can get to 90c and be perfectly alright is astounding. Apparently PCBs are made of copper? (according to wikipedia) which has a melting point of 1,085c, but the material the traces are on ... I know they can burn because I have seen people report graphics cards (to asus... lol) that reject RMA due to fire damage. So how... do they catch fire if their melting point is really high?

 

[EarthDog]

PCB's are made out of much more than copper. In fact, there is to be a non conductive medium between each layer and, AFAIK, copper is only used in the traces/connectivity. The board is predominately not copper but the other nonconductive medium mostly.

As far as melting and catching fire, two different things there boss.

 

[Robert17]

PCB's boiling point is about 350°C (depending on which PCB as there are several). So yeah, you can get them fairly hot so far as PCs go before you have to worry about fumes or fires.

 

[johan851]

The PCBs are built to withstand the heat of soldering, so the GPU would desolder itself before the PCB started being damaged.

 

[larrymoencurly]

Apparently 130C (266F) for common FR-4 stuff:

http://www.ami.ac.uk/courses/topics/0233_abm/