Pointers On How To Reduce The Cost Of PCB Prototype Assembly

Manufacturing electronic product samples comprises PCB production and PCB assembly and is an important step when launching new products. Depending on how far evolved your design is, there is a high danger of costly errors. I will give some pointers about avoiding common mistakes and how to minimize time to market and cost when making prototypes.

Making of prototypes is the first step of a new product launch and is typically done after simulation of product performance by utilizing the simulation capabilities of PCB and industrial design software. Doing a simulation allows minimizing the number of design mistakes before the first prototype is built.

One plan to speed up sample optimization is working with a modular design. A modular design will concentrate core features of your design in particular parts which are exchangeable. Throughout your sample optimization you can then rebuild separate modules which do not yet meet your performance constraints as opposed to having to rebuild your whole design. Replacing a single module will be rather cost effective. Moreover, reliability classification of modules will be faster than characterizing the complete design.

Based on the design complexity, you could think about manually assembling PCB components to save cost. Then again, for average to large complexity this method tends to be exceptionally time consuming, especially if you wish to build several samples. Subcontracting the prototype assembly provides higher quality. It can also save a lot of time.

You should look for a subcontractor that has a small setup cost because this expense is going to dominate the total expense in case of small-quantity runs. To decrease setup cost of PCB sample assembly, manufacturers will combine boards from several customers. This will distribute the setup expense amongst several customers. Consequently, you will only have a limited selection of PCB materials and thicknesses.

When looking for a supplier, you should though not focus on low setup costs alone. Choosing a vendor which can also run production quantity runs later on will avoid a lot of pitfalls during the production step because the sample data can without difficulty be reused. If there are no major changes in your design, manufacturing can begin rapidly. The manufacturing files are already available in the manufacturer-specific machine format.

A PCB contract vendor that in addition provides PCB design services will be capable to assist you in the design process and also be capable to a great deal more easily solve design-related problems.

Sourcing components for sample runs is a concern. Buying parts in small quantities is expensive and involves a lot of effort. Also, a few vendors have minimum order quantity requirements. Small quantities of SMT parts are hard to assemble by automatic machines since they usually do not come in reels. Some vendors carry stock of commonly used SMT components which you can order which will save you the time of purchasing these parts yourself and also eliminates wasting unused components.

Choosing a vendor that is also capable to do the finished product assembly reduces time to market by eliminating ship times between several vendors. In addition, circuit boards that are found to be defective throughout the final testing can be repaired a good deal more rapidly. Finally, make sure that you are able to without difficulty communicate with your vendor. This will help eliminate costly errors and shorten manufacturing preparation times throughout all stages of PCB manufacture, PCB assembly and final product assembly.

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