Things To Know For PCB Prototype Assembly

PCBs or printed circuit boards are the core of any device. Came as an alternative to traditional wire wrap technology PCB has undergone the highest round of modification till date. Gone are the days when engineers use to craft their own designs and boards. Whereas nowadays people are more inclined towards prototype PCB manufacturers for a more agile and comprehensive service. And when you as an entrepreneur are thinking about going into outsourcing for your prototype choosing the best company becomes an absolute necessity.

PCB assembly: what goes in?

Printed circuit assembly comes as the penultimate phase for any PCB board. To describe prototype PCB assembly is a step in your PCB prototyping where you populate a blank board with numerous electric components that makes it a functional circuit board. It is basically these assembly of small electronic components that conducts the electric flow within the board.

Modes of manufacturing

There are two main ways of manufacturing prototype PCB assembly generally followed by professional manufacturers which are the surface mount technology and hole technology.

Thus when you are about to hire an agency to conduct this utmost important step there are a number of things you should consider first.

Things to consider for hiring prototype assembly companies

·         Expertise

For hiring any company a stringent check over their expertise is absolutely necessary. Begin with searching what kind of expertise area the company possesses. Whether they have expertise over flex or rigid circuits or multilayer and single circuits. Check whether turnkey service features are available or not. Check what materials they offer.

·         Experience

Checking customer base before finalising any company with your device is an absolute must for you. Check what kind of customer base they have. In case if they have a long customer base it shows their high experience. Also don’t forget to tally their experience with your field of need.

·         Capabilities

It is always advisable that you go for company who have an end to end project management service. So before fixing on any company check whether they have policies for inventory management, warehousing, shipping management etc. or not?  Note that a company which provides these kind of processes play a vital role in streamlining your assembly.

·         Quality

Quality should come as the prime priority when choosing for PCB assemblers. There should be stringent quality benchmarks before any board is printed.

Note that companies that have in-house designing and assembly process always have a better quality standards than separate ones.

While hiring any company here are few questions to ask about their quality standards

• What are the tests they run for quality check?
• Do they have any state-of-the-art technology for checking quality standards?
• Do they have consistency regarding quality?

·         Layout

Before actually plunging in to production action it is always best if the company allows you to run some checks on the layout. This helps in adding bits in case needed.

Apart from these make sure to check their international repute, project handling skills, time management capabilities and not the least their costing and make the right choice for your prototype assembling.