Some useful guidelines to help you stumble down to the quality PCB service provider

Instead of investing huge money in creating a separate department for the purpose of designing and manufacturing PCBs, electronic companies find it more beneficial and economical to outsource this task to an outside company instead. However, there are pools of companies that offer contractual PCB services, and therefore finding the best one becomes a little tricky.

This article focuses on what to look for in a contacting company before hiring it to redeem its services. Take a look:

Certifications – Always go for a company that can meet with multiple national and international standards as it shows their ability to offer high quality electronic services to a number of industries. Look for certifications from ISO, military and government certifications that are indicative of company’s quality.

Testimonials and case studies – Any worthy PCB service providing company will have enough case studies, reviews, testimonials and reports of past projects. While talking to a company representative, ask about a situation where they had to work on a short notice or had high goals to achieve. Try to find out how they dealt with a challenging situation. This would let you know a lot about the company.

List of clients – One of the sure shot proof of the kind and quality of services offered by any company would be the list of its clients. PCB making companies hired by high-profiles companies are more likely worthy of its services.

Designing and manufacturing services – To get the best out of your local PCB manufacturing service provider, look for a company that deals not only in manufacturing but also in designing. This is because you will always benefit from their extra expertise. A company that deals in both designing and production can detect design related flaws and errors and provide correctional advice, thus saving you from big financial losses.

An assurance for improvement – You would always like to hire a company that has an ability to stay on the top of latest advancements, newest ideas and trends in electronics industry. Check out the blogs and all the promotional material that company has posted online. See to the fact what idea the information is giving about the manufacturer. See if the company seems to be staying on the top of technology or just recycling the same old information and ideas. A company that does not seem to be current and updated of the latest trends would likely not deliver high-quality services.

Follow the above-mentioned instructions and be assured that will not be settling for a substandard local PCB manufacturing company, but only the best in industry.

Why PCB Prototype services are crucial for electronic manufacturers?

If you are a part of electronics industry and want to launch a product in the market, then it is never a good idea to launch the first idea that engineers came up with. The reason is that first design or idea of product can have some flaws and may not be perfect one. New concepts have to first go through testing as made refined before supplying it down to the assembly line.

Failing to do so can turn out to be a costly affair afterwards. A company generally faces this problem when it outsources electronic manufacturing to outside party. The quality of product manufactured will depend upon the specification provided and the quality of device. If the specifications are flawed, then the ultimate product will also be of substandard quality.

To save electronic manufacturers from these, PCB prototype services come into picture. There are companies that offer these services, which every electronic manufacturing company should contact before outsourcing the PCB services.

Advantages of PCB prototyping

One can think of it as getting insurance done. Spending a little money in the beginning, one can save himself from potential losses. You can compare the idea of a prototype to that of a model or a sample. Prototyping creates multiple samples, and gives manufacturer the liberty to choose the one that promises perfection and highest quality.

For example if one has to finalize a PCB design, these services will create multiple designs and make them go through real life testing. After testing, one can choose that design which is the ideal one involving least costs and the one that promises maximum efficiency. The idea behind it is that of a test and trial so that engineers can find errors in early stages.  The advantage of creating these samples via prototyping is that it provides specifications which are real as per an actual working system, and not just in theories.    

These services help save businesses from facing reputation loss as a result of making poor quality products. Once some negative news has broken out that particular firm offers poor product, it is hard to compensate that loss and undo it without a complete rebranding.

PCB prototyping provides the makers enough room where they can implement procedures to thoroughly test and idea or concept before replicating it into a real product and thus saves from committing big mistakes during production phase.

If a company does not have an in-house research and development department, it can outsource this task to a firm that offers prototype services. initially, there are many uncertainties whether a new concept will be able to perform required task and deliver needed results, but engineers who do prototype testing can detect problems, and make required changes until the design has reached an ideal stage of perfection.

The advantage of PCB prototype services is that it helps manufactures create a replica of a new design after thorough real-life testing.

Reasons to prefer PCB surface mount manufacturing over traditional techniques

Printed Circuit Boards have become the basic components of different types of electronic components. Many industries such as automobile, medical, telecommunications, power supply, instrumentation control, entertainment, and others greatly rely on PCB manufacturers in order to fulfill their needs of manufacturing variety of electronics.

PCB, depending upon the purpose they are designed for, can be single layer, double layer, or multi-layer structures. These structures contain numerous electronic components soldered on the board and conductive paths through which the components communicate.

The electronic components on the boards are soldered through using various technologies such as through-the-hole and surface mount. Through the mount technique is a traditional approach of soldering electronic components that use leads or wires. The wires are passed through the holes drilled on the board and attached on the pads on the other side of the board manually or using mounting machines.

Highly popular soldering technology used by printed circuit board manufacturers these days is PCB surface mount manufacturing. It is the best suitable method when it comes to the fabrication of highly complex and superior quality PCBs.

Significant improvement over the traditional component mounting technique, SMT has become the ideal choice of manufacturing printed circuit boards for numerous reasons including:

Effective time utilization: Prior to the emergence of surface mount technique, through-the-hole and point-to-point soldering techniques were used. These fusing methods consumes large amount of time since the components need to attach pads on the frames and require wires to be inserted into the holes. This type of manufacturing of PCBs not only consumes significant time on soldering but also affects the way energy is conducted throughout PCBs.

On the other hand, surface mounting technique supports the fusing of electrical parts on the surface of the boards instead of connecting through holes. Using this method, electrical parts are mounted on PCBs via automation which saves a lot of time.

Reduced  manufacturing costs:In comparison to traditional soldering techniques, SMT save much money needed to produce fully-functional PCBs. Furthermore, the production of lower quantity or prototype printed circuit boards was extremely expensive with traditional fabrication methods.

Due to the automation of the fabrication process and ability to produce variety of low quantity PCBs simultaneously, surface mount method lowered down the expenses needed on the production.

Enhanced Usability: Printed circuit boards that are manufactured using surface mount fabrication technique make use of smaller components which made entire PCB compact and sleeker. Due to their smaller size and lighter weight, they provide electronic devices with portability feature.

That is why printed circuit boards are widely used in electronic devices such as computers, laptops, washing machines, smart phones, and others.
 

At American Progressive Circuits,Inc, PCB surface mount manufacturing helps to produce small-sized and properly functioning PCBs at reasonable costs.

Ensure properly working PCB production with reliable PCB manufacturing companies

Printed Circuit Board is a thin sheet on which electronic component and chips are soldered and connected for communication via conducting pathways.

There are different types of printed circuit boards available that are manufactured, according to the client’s requirement specifications, using various types of soldering techniques.

PCBs are widely used in different industries that deal with the manufacturing of electronics such as automobile, entertainment, medical, telecommunications, power supply, instrumentation control, and others.

Many of such businesses hire professional PCB manufacturing companies for fabrication of ready-to-use printed circuit boards. Let me share with you the common steps used in the manufacturing of printed circuit boards.

• After choosing the thin sheet on which various electronic component are mounted, the next step is to make pathways on the board so that electrical components and chips can communicate to produce the desired functionality. Pathways are made by removing unwanted copper from the board. Manufacturing of PCBs is generally carried out through etching process which is accomplished using ferric chloride.

• The designing of conductive pathways is accomplished through a photographic process in which a thin layer of photo-resist material is used to cover the copper on the board.

• Photo-resist material on the board is then exposed to light through mask, known as photo-mask or photographic film, printed with the details of required pattern of pathways.

• After this, photo-resist is placed in a designer so that spaces on the board where conductive lines are needed are highlighted in the resist.

• The next step in the fabrication process is to etch the board areas where no conductive lines are needed.  To achieve this PCB is placed into ferric chloride.

• The time for which the board is placed in ferric chloride greatly depends upon two aspects that are the thickness of copper on the sheet and concentration of ferric chloride. Any carelessness in the measurement of such factors can give you with low definition track designs. For example, if the board is placed in the ferric chloride for long time, it may produce a low definition pattern because ferric chloride has properties to weaken the photo-resist.

• Although photographic processing for manufacturing PCB is quite popular, there are many other techniques to achieve the same results. Using highly specialized milling machine, copper layer can be milled away from those parts of the board where it is not required. The milling of copper is controlled by printed circuit board design software. When it comes to the manufacturing of PCBs in large quantities, this method of designing printed circuit boards is not suitable.

• Another methods used for printed circuit board prototype is to print onto PCBs etch resistant inks via silk screening printing process.

Hiring PCB manufacturing companies, one can ensure the fast production of properly functioning PCBs.

What basic qualities are needed to be looked into PCB prototype manufacturing services distributor?

Choosing of an able electronic supplier is must, in order to get best quality results and to meet up to the expectation of the clients.

Especially, when it comes to electronic industry choosing of reliable supplier is must in order to reach the goals on time and to let the business prosper.

However, finding one reliable distributer amongst the hoard of suppliers is not so easy because there are many counterfeits and cheaters in market whose main purpose is to grab money from people.

This is where you need to be cautious and look into few qualities when searching for PCB prototype manufacturing services supplier:

Channelizing of stocks

Manufacturers expect from the distributor that their orders will reach on time. For this, a distributor needs to channelize their orders in an appropriate way, so that it can reach the customers as early as possible.

Offer affordable rates

A distributor must have effective interaction with the retailers and sell the equipment on affordable prices to them, so that manufacturers do not find it heavy on their pockets.

Coordinates well with the retailers

Besides, accomplishing orders on time, distributor also needs to maintain a healthy relation with the retailers. This is because relation (good or bad) affects shall be borne by the manufacturers. For example, if distributor won’t have good relation with retailers then certainly supplier will not give any discount to retailer and subsequently, retailer won’t give any less to manufacturer. Hence, a supplier should be one who has good communication with everyone.

Deliver quality of services

Quality is the major aspect that is needed to be considered when looking for a manufacturer because there is no room of experimentation in business world.  Especially, when you want to come speed up in the competition, you need to be sure of that distributer you are thinking to rely upon is best in line and trusted for delivering quality products to their clients.

Relied for providing consistent solutions

Your job task of selecting a reliable manufacturer is not just to avail quality services, but to also make sure that he provides consistent solutions in a long run, as well. This is important because in case your product wears down, then he should provide you immediate solutions for it.

After reading all the above aspects related to the qualities of distributer, you must have got a clear idea about the things that you need to look into while searching a distributor.

As there are numerous suppliers available in market make sure to research well. The best way to find some reliable suppliers is via searching online or through directories, or even you can take reference of your friends and colleagues.

To get the best and guaranteed electronic equipment, research well and then choose one reliable PCB prototype manufacturing services supplier available in market and online.

How to select a reliable PCB manufacturing testing manufacturer?

Undoubtedly, the essential component of electronic industry is PCB, which is also known as printed circuit board.

The world has changed and so the technology. With such rapid changes, it has become quite important to meet up with the pace of development.
Talking about electronic industry which too has kept the pace with the change, this calls for the need of reliable manufacturer.

If you are a newcomer and you don’t have any idea about who are the best PCB manufacturing testing manufacturers in your vicinity, then have a look at this document that will help you to find the best one. Let’s get started:

There are many companies who prove to be more capable than they are in actuality. You need to be aware from such manufacturers, as for them their motive is to grab customers towards them for the sake of earning money. In regard to this, you need to research well. This comprise of looking out for authentic dealers.

However, finding one is a difficult task. You can make use of internet, the best platform to search. Via this you will come across a number of dealers.
Besides getting the list of suppliers, you can also find out who is the best amongst those. Thinking, how? Well, via seeing the reviews and comments of people regarding the manufacturers.

Once you have sought the few suppliers that you find are good, make sure to have one on one conversation with them. This will help you know more about them personally.
During this conversation, you must ask few things like, standards, quality, technology used and measures taken to build PCB boards.

After having conversation, weigh out the pros and cons of the available options. This will help you out find one reliable manufacturer who will cater your needs.

Once you have searched a dealer, you must ask if he gives you guarantee of the product. If not, then you must reconsider your choice. Guarantee of boards is important because, in case if it get wears down then you can get it replaced easily, if you have guarantee card with you. Eventually, it will also give you an assurance that in such case you won’t have to spend your money again on buying new PCB board.

After looking at the points you must have got an idea about the factors that you need to consider when searching for a reliable manufacturer.

So, make sure you follow these points, as there is no room for experimentation in such case because you would never want your business to suffer any losses.

PCB manufacturing testing is the most essential step carried out by the manufacturers to build up a good PCB board.