Suggestions For Subcontracting PCB Assembly And Sample Making

If you want to produce a few prototypes which require PCB assembly, it doesn't make sense to purchase costly equipment. Instead, you may want to outsource the production to a reliable vendor. A lot of vendors will offer both PCB production and assembly. I am going to aid you find a suitable vendor and give some suggestions as to what to look out for when picking a vendor.

Frequently you will find a quotation system on contract manufacturer websites. Utilizing this system, you can get an instantaneous quotation for your board or assembly. This will help you save time when evaluating different vendors. You should be able to enter all of the board information such as 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 later on.

Frequently the cost per board will decrease as quantity increases. This is a result of the fairly high setup expense of circuit board manufacturing and component assembly. A number of vendors which specialize in smaller-quantity prototype manufacture will use a system where boards from numerous customers are combined. This allows the setup process to be completed once for a number of orders which will help lower the expense per board. For medium volume, employing a standard production procedure is more cost effective though. When you produce a product, you clearly do not wish to have to produce a high volume of boards immediately while you refine your design.

One limiting factor with small-quantity prototypes however is that the choice of materials and material thicknesses will be restricted. If you are using a particular material then chances are there won't be any other customers utilizing the same material. In addition, lead time plays a big role in determining cost. A longer lead time allows the manufacturer more freedom in scheduling your production. This is typically reflected in lower costs which you will see in the quote section. Obviously if you are in a rush and need to be moved to the top of the pile you will need to spend more money.

Make sure that your contract manufacturer will support the file format for manufacture that you provide. The most common format for PCB manufacture is the Gerber format but a number of vendors will also accept board files from common PCB software tools. If you go with a vendor that also provides circuit board design services, your vendor will usually be able to correct problems that may exist in your board files. That will help avoid unnecessary delays.

Be sure that your vendor can handle the package type of each component on your board if you plan on subcontracting the PCB assembly. You should get a list of what types of components your vendor can mount online. Some vendors may not be able to mount particular BGA or chip-scale packages. It is best to get in touch with your supplier ahead of time to eliminate problems down the road.

If you want to simplify the purchasing of board components, you can select a vendor which has stock of standard components. That way you only have to consign special types of components. When using your vendor's stock, you need to make certain you indicate 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 data.

If you intend to buy the SMT stencil from the same supplier, you should purchase it immediately when ordering the circuit boards to eliminate any PCB assembly delays.

If you require testing, make sure your supplier supports the board test methods you require. Some testing will require building of particular test fixtures. This will require additional time and cost. In addition, be certain that your vendor has appropriate quality management approvals.