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Strategies For Subcontracting PCB Assembly And Prototype Manufacturing

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It normally does not make sense to invest in costly production equipment if you simply wish to spin a couple of prototypes and instead subcontract your PCB assembly and prototype manufacturing to a trustworthy vendor. I am going to aid you find a suitable supplier and give some tips as to what to look out for when choosing a vendor.

Many contract manufacturers will have an instant quotation instrument on their website for manufacture of circuit boards and assembly of prototypes. This will save you time when comparing different vendors. Make certain that the quote system allows you to enter all of the information, such as board material, thickness, copper thickness, milling etc. so that you can obtain an accurate quote without any surprises later on. The per-board cost will usually decrease with increasing quantity due to the manufacturing setup expense. A number of vendors will utilize a system where they combine boards from several customers. In this way the setup cost will be distributed amongst a number of clients. When you manufacture a product, you clearly do not want to have to produce a high volume of boards right away while you refine your design. If you are making a prototype board then vendors will generally only offer certain types of standard materials and thicknesses since they are trying to combine production of your boards with other customer boards. Many vendors will charge differently depending on how quick you require them to complete the manufacture. A longer lead time will afford the vendor more liberty to slot the assembly. Also, they can more easily mix your order with other customer’s orders. This is typically reflected in lower costs which you will see in the quote section. Clearly if you are in a rush and want to be moved to the top of the pile you will have to spend more money. Be certain that you can offer the file formats that your vendor requires. The most common format is the Gerber format for PCB production. Several companies will also be capable to read design software-specific file formats. Several manufacturers also offer in-house PCB design. Even if you design your board yourself, selecting a supplier with design services may prove valuable in case there is a problem with your files. In this situation your vendor can make fast modifications which will eliminate costly delays. When subcontracting PCB assembly, make sure that your vendor can mount all of the package types that your board uses. Some vendors cannot assemble specific type of IC packages such as BGA, chip-scale packages or extremely small component types. Get in touch with your supplier if you have questions about what kind of components can be assembled. That will eliminate problems later on. Some manufacturers will have stock of normally used components which you can pull from as opposed to ordering each component yourself. When using your vendor’s stock, you have to make sure you point out which components you are consigning. You can usually specify this in your bill of materials. The BOM which you upload to your vendor’s website must contain this information. Your supplier may typically also manufacture the SMT stencil which is required for SMT board assembly. Manufacture of the stencil takes some time. So be certain to order the stencil immediately when ordering your boards to reduce the PCB assembly time. If you require testing, make sure your supplier supports the board test methods you require. Some testing will need building of particular test fixtures. This will require additional time and cost. In addition, make sure that your vendor has appropriate quality management approvals.

Brian Fuller has been involved with circuit board assembly and other electronic devices for over 10 years. You can get additional information regarding

pcb manufacturing

by clicking at this link.

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