Advancing Marketing

Suggestions For Outsourcing PCB Assembly And Sample Making

Purchasing costly production machines isn’t feasible if you just want to run the PCB manufacturing and assembly of a few prototypes. As an alternative you probably want to outsource the prototype assembly to a reliable contract manufacturer. I will give some ideas as to what to watch out for when trying to find a contract manufacturer.

Some manufacturers will have an immediate online quote system on their website which will save you save time when picking a supplier. You should be able to enter all of the board data including board thickness, material etc. and special requirements such as milling, surface treatments into the quote system. This will assure an accurate quote without the risk of surcharges afterward.

If you manufacture a low volume of boards, the cost typically will be higher per board than the cost when manufacturing a larger quantity. This is a result of the board manufacture and assembly setup expense which is usually fixed. Several prototype manufacturers will combine boards from different customers to help distribute the setup expense and lower the cost per board for small volumes. When you are still in the design phase of your product, you do not want to spin a large quantity of boards initially. Once you refine your design you may slowly want to raise the board volume.

One limitation with small-quantity prototypes still is that the choice of materials and material thicknesses will be restricted. If you are using a special material then chances are there won’t be any other clients utilizing the same material. Many manufacturers will charge differently depending on how fast you need them to complete the manufacture. A longer lead time will afford the vendor more freedom to slot the assembly. Moreover, they can more easily combine your order with other customer’s orders. You should find that the quote will vary depending on the lead time when you enter your data in the instant quote section.

Verify that your supplier can read your production files which usually would be Gerber files for circuit boards but can also be software-specific files in some cases. If you choose a supplier which also provides circuit board design services then you can rest assured that there won’t be any extensive delays in case your board files have a problem that needs to be corrected.

When outsourcing PCB assembly, ensure that your vendor can mount all of the package types that your board uses. Some vendors can’t assemble particular type of IC packages such as BGA, chip-scale packages or very small component types. Get in touch with your supplier if you have questions about what kind of parts can be assembled. That will eliminate problems later on.

A few manufacturers will have inventory of commonly used components which you can pull from rather than ordering each part yourself. Make certain to state which components you want to consign yourself when you upload your bill of materials.

Most vendors will also offer manufacture of the SMT stencil which is required for PCB assembly. Be certain to order the stencil immediately when buying the circuit boards themselves to eliminate delays.

To make sure that your circuit boards will function, make sure that your vendor is quality certified and offers the tests and board inspection methods that are required. Please note, though, that particular tests, such as ICT testing requires additional time and cost to prepare suitable test fixtures.