Recommendations For Outsourcing PCB Assembly And Small Volume Prototype Producing

It normally does not make sense to invest in costly production equipment if you simply wish to spin a couple of prototypes and as an alternative outsource your PCB assembly and prototype manufacturing to a trustworthy vendor. I will demonstrate what to look out for when selecting a vendor. I will also give some pointers on which services today's suppliers offer.

Frequently you will find a quotation system on contract manufacturer websites. Using this system, you can get an immediate quote for your board or assembly. This will help you save time when comparing several manufacturers. This quote system should let you to enter all of the board data. Such data include board thickness, material and any particular manufacturing requirements including milling. This will help you avoid any surprises in case of surcharges for particular manufacturing requirements.

Usually the cost per board will decrease as quantity increases. This is a result of the relatively high setup cost of circuit board making and component assembly. Several manufacturers will utilize a system where they combine boards from a number of clients. This way the setup expense will be distributed amongst several clients. In the design stage of your product, you may want to start out with a smaller quantity of boards first. After that you can work out the issues with your design. Finally you will be able to increase the build volume

One limiting factor with small-quantity prototypes however is that the variety of materials and material thicknesses will be limited. If you are utilizing a particular material then chances are there won't be any other customers using the same material. The production cost will typically decrease with a longer lead time which will give the supplier more freedom in slotting the production. This is normally reflected in lower costs which you will see in the quote section. Obviously if you are in a hurry and want to be moved to the top of the pile you will have to spend more money.

Be sure that your contract manufacturer will support the file format for manufacture that you offer. The most common format for PCB manufacture is the Gerber format but some vendors will also accept board files from widespread PCB software products. If you pick a vendor which also provides circuit board design services then you can rest assured that there won't be any long delays in case your board files have a problem that needs to be corrected.

When subcontracting PCB assembly, make sure that your vendor can assemble all of the package types that your board uses. Some manufacturers cannot assemble specific type of IC packages such as BGA, chip-scale packages or very small component types. If in doubt ensure to get in touch with your vendor ahead of time.

A number of contract manufacturers will have in stock an inventory of standard SMT and through-hole parts. You will save time if you can pull from your vendor's inventory rather than ordering each part yourself. Make certain to specify which components you wish to deliver yourself when you upload your bill of materials.

Your vendor may typically also manufacture the SMT stencil which is needed for SMT board assembly. Production of the stencil requires some time. So be certain to order the stencil immediately when purchasing your boards to reduce the PCB assembly time.

If you require testing, make sure your vendor supports the board test methods you need. Some testing will need building of special test fixtures. This will require extra time and cost. Also, ensure that your supplier has suitable quality management approvals.