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.

5 Benefits of Choosing Printed Circuit Board Prototyping

printed circuit board prototyping

Deciding to go for printed circuit board prototyping rather than for standard production provides you with several benefits. In any project, situation, or circumstance where there is a possibility of developing a better design, upgrading, or introducing changes, hiring PCB prototyping services can be very beneficial.

In this blog, we are going to discuss various benefits that come with PCB prototyping. So, let’s take a look at why it is better to choose to prototype than standard production. 

Fast Turnaround Time

Production generally involves large quantities and that will take more time certainly than designing a few prototypes. Experienced professionals can provide you with high quality PCB prototypes within a couple of days, while it takes around three days to half a month for delivering a production order (that may vary based on order quantity).

This means, with fast turnaround time, you can quickly start testing new design and keep your project in motion with least downtime. 

Early Flaw Detection

When you get a prototype before starting production, you have a fair chance and amount of time to detect flaws at early stages. This way, you won’t have to invest a lot of time and money in designs that are faulty or can be improved. Making changes early in the design also helps you avoid potential issues that may have an impact on your project success.

Besides, fixing an issue later is also more complicated and costly. So, it’s always wise to know about any flaws before starting production. 

Accurate Representation

Another benefit of Printed Circuit Board Prototyping is that they can help you obtain the accurate representation of standard PCB design. Once you get it, you can move to final production without any worries. Despite lower tolerances, they provide you with a fair enough idea of what you will get after standard production process. If you are not satisfied, you can always make changes in the prototype. 

Project Efficiency

The time a company takes to deliver its orders has a huge impact on its reputation. Fortunately, hiring PCB prototyping service can help you meet the project deadlines as they enable you to spot errors, correct design flaws, and point out the changes you want. However, without prototyping, going for standard production is like shooting in the dark. You get to uncover flaws and performance issues after PCBs are ready and that can substantially extend your project’s time-frame.  Ultimately, this will result in revenue loss and dissatisfied customers as well. So, don’t ignore the importance of PCB prototyping. 

Reduced Overall Costs

As prototyping allows you to identify issues at the early stages and fix them before investing in high-volume production, it also benefits you by reducing the overall costs of the project. With this option, you don’t have to worry about working on the entire production for errors as you have already figured all problems in the prototype and then ordered for a standard production run.

In short, choosing printed circuit board prototyping is beneficial in all aspects whenever you are in need of high-volume PCB production.                                                                                                                                                                               

WHY PCBs ARE CONSIDERED ESSENTIAL IN MECHANICAL INDUSTRY?

PCB manufacturers in China        

PCB’s or Printed circuit boards are utilized in almost all the electric gadgets such as mobile phones, tablets, PCs, digital cameras, power supplies, sensors, TV, radio,  internal devices, infusion pumps, and so on for physically supporting the socket components. The simple electronic devices are used in hardware, such as computer graphic cards and motherboards. Thus, these boards are useful in supporting the arrangements of electric components. PCB manufactures in China are experts in supplying high-quality of PCB fabrication and PCB production to the mechanical industry.

Types of PCBs

Various types of PCB are available in circuits which are either used for domestic purposes or industrial purposes.

·       Single-layer PCB – These are also known as single-sided PCB essentially consisting of one layer of substrate or base material. One side of this PCB is coated with a layer of conducting material like copper which is a good conductor of electricity. It acts as a solder mask which is used to protect PCB from oxidation.

·       Double-layer PCB – Double-layer PCB or Double-sided PCB is made up of a thin layer of conducting material attached to both sides of the board. They are used to form electrical connections between both sides of the PCB which gets possible through surface mount technology and through-hole technology. Various applications such as Industrial controls, Power supplies, Instrumentation, HVAC systems, LED lighting, etc are typically using this type of PCB. 

·       Multi-layer PCB – This type of PCB is used in multilayers which ensure excess heat doesn’t melt the electric components. Different variants of multi-layer PCBs are used in various applications such as data storage, GPS technology, satellite system, file servers, weather analysis, and medical equipment and so on.

·        Rigid PCBs – These printed circuit boards are made from solid substrate material which prevents the board from folding or twisting. Different layers such as single-sided flex circuit, double-sided flex circuit, and multisided flex circuit added to the PCB. Rigid PCBs are known as Flex circuit and they are used in various computer parts such as CPU, GPU, and RAM.

·        High-frequency PCBs - These boards are designed to transmit signals into the electric components and gadgets. Its frequency of 500MHz to 2GHz makes it ideal for high-speed designs for various electric applications.

Why PCBs are essential?

PCBs provide all the electric support to the mechanical appliances which function through electric combinations and they are helpful in numerous ways

1. PCBs lead to fewer chances of manufacturing faults and it also evaluates the overall board   performance.
2.  It offers strong consistent performance without affecting their profit objectives.
3. Automated design of PCB provides electric support to the appliances.
4.  It also evaluates and replaces the failure of electric components. 

Are you are looking for flexible PCB manufacturers in China?        

If yes, then you have come to the right place.

We offer high-quality of PCB assembly service to meet the customer’s requirements. With our prominent and specialized PCB suppliers, you will be happy to experience the best installation service of qualified and reliable products.