Tips to Find the Best PCB Factory

 

PCB or Printed Circuit Boards are found in all kinds of electronic products today and it becomes the core of their functioning. It becomes important to design the correct prototype of the PCB so that all things can be checked at the right time. Take the help of a PCB factory in China to draw a full design review and judge the quality of the printed board. As the PCBs are being attached to the electronic device, it is important to get the design of the circuit board better.

The selection of the relevant PCB expert or company can be a daunting task if done for the first time. PCBs are everywhere and thus one needs to be selective in getting the right product. Talk with experts who understand the design of circuit boards and thus come up with relevant plans to locate the relevant factory. The PCB factory in China designs the right kind of PCB modules that works with the latest model. Release the electronic product with the right kind of PCBs in it and thus get the design perfect in the first stage.

Let us look at some of the best tips to pick the PCB factory –

·         It is important to check the layout design of the PCB. Experts pay critical attention to technical details and thus come up with suitable layouts. A good PCB factory will be able to design the right kind of PCB modules that fit the electronic products perfectly. Make sure that the PCB functions effectively and thus the circuit board manufacturing needs to be done without any issue.

·         Check the strategy of the PCB factory. The designs & manufacturing of the PCBs will decide the success of the electronic product and thus you need to pick the best professionals. Talk with the factory professionals and make sure that you have a strategy in place for instant production.

·         Check the reputation of the PCB factory in the local market. You’ll get the best assistance from PCB manufacturers and thus check the reputation of the company. A reputed PCB factory will provide the delivery of PCBs at the right time to ensure the release of the final product after assembly.

·         Compare the cost of the product across all the available options. Finding the right PCB factory within the budget is a real task and one needs to be aware of the things they need to minimize the cost. Take the help of price quotes to compare the different ranges and come up with the best options.

The PCB factory in China provides the right kind of options to manufacture circuit boards that function accurately for products. Picking the correct company for PCB manufacturing can be a hard task and selecting the right kind of factory becomes important. Take the help of a good electronic design company and thus get PCBs that work perfectly for electronic devices. Tackle the issues smartly and thus come up with suitable solutions.

Why do you need the Help of PCB Manufacturers?

PCBs (Printer Circuit Boards) are needed to develop all kinds of electronic devices and it becomes the base for modern-day tools. You need to reach out to suitable PCB manufacturers so that the final product is a relevant one. It can also be referred to as the complex procedure to ensure the best performance of the final product. You need to reach out to a reputed PCB factor in China for getting the best prototypes that work for you.

PCBs are typically made of copper and depending on the needs the copper gets plated to the substrate and carved to expose the relevant design of the board. The PCB manufacturer needs to be aware of the product requirements and needs to work with the best designs. These boards are needed for the mechanical basis of the circuit and they’re designed in multiple ways across the platform. There are a couple of variations in the PCB manufacturing process, but the basis of development remains the same.

The PCB consists of four different parts as follows –

Substrate: It is the first and foremost part of the PCB and is prepared out of fiberglass. They provide the core strength to the structure and thus help to prevent any kind of breakage. The substrate can also be referred to as the skeleton of PCB.

Copper Layer: It is the second part of the PCB that is vital to develop top-rated PCBs for electronic equipment. Based on the kind of board, it can be a copper foil or a full-on copper coating. The need for copper is the same – it helps to carry the electrical signals to and from the PCB.

Solder Mask: The third piece of the PCB is the solder mask and can be said as the layer of polymer that helps to protect the copper. It prevents any kind of short-circuit from coming into contact with the environment. Solder mask is said to be working as the PCBs’ skin.

Silkscreen: The last part of the PCB or circuit board is the silkscreen. It is used as the component of show part numbers, symbols, and logos that become an important part of component reference & test point. It is also referred to as the legend or nomenclature.

It is important that the design of the PCB is placed before the start of manufacturing. For it, one needs to contact the PCB manufacturers with relevant experience in developing related products. The design process is completed with the use of technology and then the time comes to print the technology. All the processes are handled carefully by the PCB factory in China and you need to get in contact with a relevant one.

As the complexity of PCBs increases, it becomes impossible to provide the necessary connectivity using two sides of the PCB. You need a considerable degree of accuracy to manufacture the multi-layer printed circuit board and thus reach out to expert manufacturers for help.

How to Safely Store Printed Circuit Boards

 

A printed circuit board is an integral component of electronic devices and is used in plenty of devices in the electronic industry. That’s why companies that design electronic items essentially need the support of circuit board manufacturers to complete their production. If you also use PCBs in your manufacturing process, there is one thing that you must know about – how to safely store PCBs.

It’s common in electronics-based companies to get PCBs delivered days, weeks, or even months before they are used. So, you must handle and store each unit of PCB properly so that its functionality and quality don’t get compromised. In this guide, you will learn some tips for the safe storage of printed circuit boards.

How to Prepare Your PCB Storage Area

To store PCBs, you should designate a climate-controlled area that is free of contaminants and debris. It must be dry and super clean. So, make sure to wipe down the area with a clean cloth and get rid of all the dust. If necessary, sweep the area before wiping it.

A moisture-controlled area is important to prevent any defects and damages from occurring to PCBs. Otherwise, they might get damaged with shortages and corrosion. Besides, you should also take steps for any intrusion and electrostatic force in the storage area.

What to Take Care of While Storing PCBs

Just like for any electronics, moisture is the biggest enemy of printed circuit boards. Thus, you don’t want any moisture or contaminants to get in contact with your PCBs.

Keep your hands clean and wear gloves when handling circuit boards. When storing PCBs, pick up the circuit boards from edges and place each of them in an air-tight, vacuum-sealed bag. Don’t put excessive pressure on the boards while storing them.

Once PCBs are placed in a vacuum-sealed bag, store them in an area that is free of static charges and any liquids. The outer package might indicate the normal moisture level for printed circuit boards; however, if your place happens to have too much moisture, you may need to dehumidify the place or bake the place at a precise temperature.

What to Know About Long-Term Storage of PCB?

When it comes to long-term storage, you must have dry shield bags for storing PCBs. Each packet should contain desiccant, a moisture barrier bag, a humidity indicator card, and a moisture-sensitive label. Apart from convenient shelf storage space, printed circuit boards can be stored in air-tight dry cabinets. Dry cabinets are available specifically for the storage of moisture-sensitive items, such as printed circuit boards.

One more thing that you should know about is that you should leave printed circuit boards in their original packaging as a precaution until you need them. It will help you avoid any unnecessary mechanical damage.

By now, you have learned essential steps that you must follow while storing printed circuit boards to prevent their quality and functionality from altering. So, keep them in mind and follow them whenever you need to store PCBs for the short or long term.

PCB Manufacturing is Expensive. Know How to Reduce the Cost!!

 

If you are dealing in electrical equipment and need PCBs for the same, then you should be worried about the cost. You should know how to reduce the cost of PCB manufacturing to keep the overall cost of the electrical equipment within a range. Or else, the cost of production will be significantly higher.

 

But, you shouldn’t skimp on quality for the price. No matter what the condition, you shouldn’t bargain the PCB manufacturing cost keeping the quality on the bay. The manufacturing cost depends on many factors so you should consider them all and while designing the PCB and reduce the cost.

 

In this post, we will discuss the tips to reduce your PCB manufacturing cost.

 

Size of the printed circuit board 

The size of the PCB impacts the cost of production. We know a bigger circuit board is easier to route, but it is costlier to produce. Sometimes, smaller PCBs are also costlier because you need extra layers on them. The manufacturers have to use more precise equipment to manufacture and assemble your boards. It means you should consider the size of the printed circuit board to control the cost.

Choose higher-quality materials 

Good quality materials for PCB manufacturing may increase your upfront initial cost but it will guarantee a more reliable end product. So you shouldn’t compromise on the material quality and try saving money on manufacturing. If you choose cheaper quality products, your product might suffer failures. Also, you might have to return it to the manufacturer and get it fixed.

 

 Prefer standard circuit board shapes 

Your electronic items might demand printed circuit boards of different shapes. But, it’s always good to use the standard shapes because they are easy to manufacture and cost-effective. The manufacturer won’t have to specifically cater to your needs and give more attention to the details. These specifications increase the effort as well as cost. The conventional shapes of the standard circuit board are rectangle and square.

 

Follow industry standard sizes and components

Like every industry, there are standard sizes and components defined for the electronic industry. Following standard sizes and components make things simpler and more efficient. Also, the manufacturer doesn’t have to use many resources like for bespoke specifications.  

 

Provide longer lead times 

If you require a faster turn-around time, there will be additional costs for manufacturing and assembling the circuit boards. The manufacturer will use extra resources to speed up your turn-around time, which will increase your manufacturing cost. So, you should provide a longer lead time to your manufacturer for cost-effective results.

 

Other than these 5 cost-saving tips, you should opt for a PCB prototype. You will get the sample product before the bulk production. With the PCB prototype, you will have time to identify the issues and resolve them so that nothing goes wrong in the final production. It will protect your resources and unnecessary production of wrong products. So, you should work with a cheap PCB prototype manufacturer for the same.

Benefits Associated with Rapid PCB Prototyping

Without any proper plan, implementing new PCB products have the tendency to introduce further unnecessary delays and spending, which could have been easily avoided.

Rapid PCB Prototyping proves to be a useful process when trying to reduce the time needed for developing new and innovative designs for your business.

What is rapid PCB  prototyping?

Before we talk about the benefits of rapid PCB prototyping services, it is important to know a few basic things about prototyping. A PCB prototype is an early, demo version of a particular product built for testing purposes. In simpler terms, prototyping is considered to be quite an effective method in order to evaluate new innovative design ideas and seeing if they can be incorporated into the final product or not. Moreover, it allows the manufacturer to enhance the precision as well as the quality of the final product.

Now that we know a thing or two about rapid PCB prototyping, let’s take a look at some of the benefits of rapid PCB prototyping services.

·         Creative designs:
The more that you seem to know about your design, the more creative you can become. Thorough testing and examination of your product tend to help you come up with innovative and creative ideas that you didn’t come up with before. Furthermore, you would be able to implement all these new ideas practically in a short period of time.

·         Several test runs of PCB designs:
With a large number of prototypes available at the ready for verification and testing, you have the ability to get several examinations under distinct conditions and situations in order to assure a certain level of quality of the product, which tends to lead to final top notch products.

·         Test components separately:
One of the major problems faced in advanced projects is that the troubleshooting of several PCB based components can be tough. It can be quite a daunting task to test and verify such models as a single part. However, with the help of PCB Prototype, there is a possibility to have a single prototype for separate components. Having this capability to test and verify each component separately can ease the troubleshooting process significantly.

·         Reduced costs:
Detecting certain problems and issues in the PCB model, before you move on to the production phase of the final product, tends to eliminate the risk of losing your money in a final manufacturing process. In addition to this, the prototypes fast forward the testing and verification process, resulting in a shorter time to market and diminish manufacturing costs.

So, if you want your business to avoid losing money and instead avail all the above-mentioned benefits, then it is recommended for you to turn to rapid PCB prototyping services.

Advantages Associated with Using Printed Circuit Board Prototypes

Before starting a full production process, it is vital to make sure that a printed circuit board (PCB) is functioning in a proper way. Doesn’t matter how carefully and cautiously designers tend to work on the project, trivial mistakes and invisible problems are inevitable and pose a threat to the functionality of the final product. If these problems aren’t dealt with before starting the full production, it can turn out to be extremely expensive for the project as a whole. Hence, more and more engineers prefer to order prototype boards before indulging in full-scale manufacturing of the product.

What is a printed circuit board prototype?

A prototype, in simpler terms, is an early sample of a given product, constructed with the intention to test the design idea in order to see if it works or not. While a majority of the prototypes are simply constructed with the purpose of testing basic user functionality, in case of Printed Circuit Board Prototyping, it lets your product have the added need to be somewhat, if not completely, functional. This is because PCB prototypes are designed to test the overall functionality of the product in question.

There are certain advantages of printed circuit board prototyping when designing a product, and a few of them are mentioned below.

·         Reduced timeline:
In the process of developing a printed circuit board design, the engineers tend to go through a number of changes before finalizing the design of the final product. This can create lengthy timelines and make your production process time-consuming, but printed circuit board prototypes have the capability to help speed up the design as well as the manufacturing process as a whole.

·         Manufacturing review and assistance: 

By hiring a third party Printed Circuit Board Prototyping service, firms have the tendency to benefit from the assistance of a new set of eyes and vision. There are multiple things that can go wrong during the designing process of a product such as excessive input, design blind spots, and design rule check (DRC).
      All these issues can lead to inefficiencies, flaws in the design, and other issues that the designers and engineers may have missed in the review process. But, third party PCB prototyping services can be relied upon in order to catch these problems as early as possible.

·         Test components individually:
Engineers tend to use prototype PCBs quite frequently, but the most advantageous testing happens with simple printed circuit boards that test singular functions and components. These types of prototype PCBs test single functions that are usually incorporated into a much larger PCB, in order to make sure that they function.

·         Reduced costs:
      Standard printed circuit board production runs can be a costly affair, and leaving things to chance is most likely to increase the bill. Hence, prototypes are vital in order to reduce production costs as they help the engineers to address and tackle various issues such as catching design flaws, determining product adjustments, and pinpointing cost-saving adjustments.

So, if you are looking to avail all these benefits then make sure that you hire the services of a reliable PCB prototyping company.

Things to Keep in Mind when Selecting Your PCB Manufacturer

Earlier, it was the rarest of occasions that a designer would approach a full service printed circuit board manufacturer to print a prototype. Designers either resorted to doing printed circuit board prototyping themselves or in most of cases, approached a small scale manufacturer for getting their prototypes done. The main reason for this compromise being, the cost of printing a PCB prototype was significantly high during those times. Since the evolution and revolution of technology and processes, all the designers have turned to the services of full-time PCB manufacturers for any of their prototype requirements. The development in technology and modern processes has made full-scale PCB manufacturers print prototypes at a much lower price as compared to the earlier days. This has created a win-win situation for not only the manufacturers but also the designers as the designers get high-quality prototypes at a much affordable cost.

However, choosing the right Printed Circuit Board Prototyping manufacturer is not a simple task at all. Giving the job to a wrong manufacturer can lead to grave mistakes that can compromise the entire project. So, to help you make the right choice, below are some of the tips that you need to keep in mind before finalizing on a prototype manufacturer?

Quality of the prototype: The most important criteria in choosing a PCB manufacturer should be the quality of the prototype that it provides. You need to make sure that the prototype would be devoid of any kind of error as even the smallest mistake can be gravely damaging and costly for your entire project. So, the quality of the prototype is vital when selecting the right PCB manufacturer. However, quality can signify a variety of different things and not just something that is defined.

Minimum order quantity: The next most significant aspect to look in a PCB manufacturer should be the minimum order quantity that is required by the manufacturer to accept the job that you are offering. A prototype is nothing but a design that is at an early stage and is susceptible to any sort of change. It just would not make sense if a PCB manufacturer wants a high minimum quantity order from you, and more than what you can afford. As a designer, you have the room for negotiation with most of the good manufacturers, like you can offer more orders in your future projects to convince them for a low minimum quantity.

Cost: The cost is a very important factor in the production of prototypes as well. The PCB printing business is quite competitive. With the development of the internet, every designer has the option to compare the Printed Circuit Board Prototyping manufacturers’ costs. Due to this competition in the market, there is unlikely to be much difference in the price quotes by different manufacturers. But you have to keep in mind that quality and cost don’t go hand in hand, and it is recommended that you choose quality over the price factor.

Surely, selecting the right PCB manufacturer is not easy, but we hope that now it is not that difficult of a task for you too. By keeping mind the above-mentioned points, it would be much easier for you to make the right choice.