In this video, we will show how your PCBA product goes from idea to finished product.

Click here to get more.

 

PCB(Printed Circuit Board) is a conductive pattern formed on conductive material according to the engineers&#; design, there only traces/ holes/layers on it, but without any components installed.

While the PCBA(PCB+ Assembly) means a bare PCB board assembled with components ,make a circuit board works as intended. But it's not an easy work, especially for a maker & startup, there're many processes to create a working PCBA board&#;

Makerfabs provides the turnkey PCBA service from PCB manufacturing, components sourcing, PCB board assembly, soldering, programming, testing to end shipping. With our one-stop PCB assembly service, electronic designers do not need suffer the very detailed works, can concentrate on the electronics creating and PCBA designing works.

Makerfabs PCB Assembly Services Advantages:

Makerfabs is IoT/ smart-home hardware designer, and PCBA prototype assembly/ small batch producer in Shenzhen, to help makers/ startups creating the electronics hardware rapidly:
&#; Focus on PCBA prototyping& small batch PCB assembly, more than 100 cases/ month;
&#; Friendly with Makers/ Start-ups/ R&D;
&#; 20+ engineers for DFM/ Programming/ Testing and Costing down works;
&#; 6 years' experience on IoT/ Smart Home/ Arduino/ Raspberry Pi/ ESP/ ESP32 series;
&#; PCBA with top quality, visual inspection + 100% functional testing.

1. The PCB Materials: FR4/ FPC/ Aluminum/ Rogers&#;

There're many kinds of PCBs, vary from the board materials, mainly:
1. FR4: The most commonly used Material for PCB.
2. FPC: Flexible Printed Circuit Board(or flex PCB) is a thin insulating polymer film that conductive circuit patterns are printed on, the most advantage for the FPC board is flexibility, which allows it to be the connection within a compact space or parts that need to bent. Also check the differences between Rigid-flex PCB and Flex PCB with stiffener.
3. Aluminum Board: The Aluminum PCB has good heat dissipation than FR4 PCB, which makes it suitable for boards that need quick/large heat dissipation, such as the LED Boards.
4. Rogers: When advanced electrical properties and performance are critical, such as Dielectric, dielectric constant, Rogers PCB boards would be the solution, normally only for professional high-frequency electronic engineers.

Below are some PCB( or PCBA) boards, with FR4/ FPC/ Aluminum/ Rogers material:

Makerfabs FR4 PCBs Specs:

Multi Layers: 1-2-4-6-8-12 Layers Surface Finish: Hasl Lead-Free/ ENIG/ Silver Vias: NPTH/ PTH/ Blind Vias/ Buried Vias/ HDI Special Process: Half-holes/ Golden Finger Board Color: Green, Red, Yellow, Blue, White, Black, Matte Black, Purple, Support Customizing Silk Color: White/ Black Max Size: 80x80 cm Out Layer Copper Thickness: 1 oz/ 2oz/ 3oz MOQ: 1 PC Inner Layer Copper Thickness: 0.5 oz/ 1oz Thickness: 0.4/ 0.6/ 0.8/ 1.2/ 1.6/ 2.0/ 2.4 PTH Hole Tolerance: 0.1mm Thickness Tolerance: +/- 0.1mm NPTH Hole Tolerance: 0.05mm Minimum Track Space: 6 mil Minimum Silkscreen Text Width: 6 mil Minimum PCB Track Width: 6 mil Minimum Pads Space: 6 mil

As the specs for FPC/ Aluminum/ Rogers PCB, is very complex and hard to list the details, please contact your project manager or for detailed info and spec productivity checking.

2. Make a PCB order
If only bare PCBs needed, there're many PCB online shops that provide fast PCB service, then can make you complete a PCB order in 2 minutes. In Makerfabs express PCB service, you can:

• https://www.makerfabs.com/customer/account/create/

  Register an account at

• PCB prototyping page

  Makerfabs &#; PCB Prototyping.

  Fulfill the PCB specs and input the Gerber files at the, at

• Checking out, with PayPal/Credit/Wire Transfer.

• Waiting for your PCB boards arrival, total lead time less than 1 week.

Of course, for complex PCB fabrication, and special requests, it would be easier to contact your project manager or drop an to to check and quote for you, you will get the feedback within 24 hours.

3. Turnkey PCBA (Printed Circuit Board Assembly) Service/ PCB Assembly Service

4. Payments & Lead time

Makerfabs accept payment:
(1) PayPal.
For payments less than $1,000. As you confirmed the quotation, you can:
1. Sent the payment directly to our PayPal account:  and notify your project manager about this payment;
2. Ask your project manager to send a PayPal request;
3. By purchasing the same amount of PCB assembly service at Makerfabs' official online store: https://www.makerfabs.com/maker-fabs-service.html. For example, the quotation is $500, you can directly purchase 500 pcs($1/ pcs) of the Turnkey PCBA Service.

(2) Wire Transfer.
For payment >$1,000, the wire transfer would be cost-effective. Leave a bank slip to your project manager, so we can start the PCBA production without waiting for the bank confirmation. Your project manager will send the bank account for payments.

As the lead time, for PCBA prototypes assembly(<50 pcs), 12 working days needed, and 15 working days for mass production. The detailed lead time depends on many factors such as the components sourcing difficulty/ testing time, so the final lead time many altered for each project.

Makerfabs will keep the customer in touch in the whole process of PCB assembly production, or customer can check the update with your project manager anytime.

5. Testing & Quality Control

With more than 5 years' experience in PCBA manufacturing, Makerfabs treat quality as the most important factor in our business, to ensure the final boards quality, Makerfabs acts strictly as quality control as:
PCB Production: All PCB circuit boards are E-tested after fabrication; for mass production, we may test them with the testing fixture(testing jig).

Makerfabs PCB e-testing video:

&#; Components: Makerfabs cooperated with the official components distributor, or Mouser/ Digikey/ Farnell, to avoid bad/ fate components. For electronic components that substitute brands will be used, normally for resistors/ capacitors/ connectors, Makerfabs will mark them in the PCBA quotation sheet, let customers know the detailed components used. Check the article How Makerfabs Source the Components for PCBA. All components will be double tested before the soldering, surface mounting assembly, and through-hole assembly.

&#; DFM and Prototyping: Makerfabs engineers will check every single project DFM(Design for Manufacturability) and notify the customer if any modification needed. Before the PCBA mass production, golden samples will be produced and tested. Mass production will be only done after the sample was confirmed by customers.

&#; 100% Visual Inspection: For prototype PCB assembly quantity >100 pcs, AOI(Automated Optical Inspection) inspection, according to IPC-A-610E and GB sampling standard.

Programming & Functional Testing. Makerfabs provide fully functional testing to ensure all the circuit boards work perfectly as hand to the customer. Our engineers will program/ test all the assembled boards, as the customer's testing requests/ methods.

6. Shipping

Makerfabs support most of the main express shipping include DHL/ FedEx/ UPS/ TNT:
1. For EU& CA/ US, DHL is the 1stchoice, with shipping time 3~5 days normally.
2. For South America, as the experience on customs, we suggest the UPS, which could be easier for the customer to clean the customs, lead time 10 days.
3. For JP/ Korea, suggest FedEx, lead time 3~5 days.
4. For other countries, please contact your project manager to estimate the most proper shipping solution.
As many of the projects are intends for personal usage, or for new startups, to help our customers clean the customs easier, Makerfabs can help to declare the package value as customer&#;s requests. But note the DDU shipping policy is applied, that if tax needed, customers will bear that.

Related links:
When to Use Power Rail Track System？

Link to Shenzhen Thriver Digital Tech Co., Ltd.

Makerfabs cherish every relationship with customers and serves every customer by heart. Makerfabs would be 100% responsible for the mistakes/ faults in the production. If there are indeed some problems in our production that lead to your loss, you can directly contact your project manager or  to request re-production or even a refund.
Makerfabs would be glad to hear your suggestions/ complaints if not satisfied, and your recommendations to your friends with your satisfaction.

7. Security

Your originality and all design files security stored & protected at Makerfabs. Makerfabs promise:
&#; None release any design files to any 3rd party without customer&#;s agree.
&#; None release/ leakage the originality anywhere, include Internet/ Paper/ Conference.
&#; None release customer contacts to any 3rd party without agreeing.
Besides, Makerfabs can assign NDA Files to the customer, to protect customers&#; intellectual property legally.

8. PCBA OEM/ ODM Cases

As a turnkey PCB assembly manufacturer in China, in the past 5 years, there more than 500 electronic projects assembled at Makerfabs, vary from PCB, PCB assembly, kits assembly, to the final product solution. Mainly projects on IoT/ Smart Home/ Educational...

1.) SmartPID Temperature Control:

2.) Pets for Kids Education:

3.) Skin360, for Skin Cares:

For more PCBA OEM/ ODM and electronic assembly service cases, please refer to Makerfabs services cases show: https://www.makerfabs.cc/cases/all.html.

9. Videos about PCB Assembly Process in Makerfabs Factory

1. This video is the Maduino Zero A9G PCB board assembly process in Makerfabs factory.

 

2. This video follows a Keyboard FeatherWing PCB panel on the journey through assembly and testing. You will see the full process of the PCB Assembly in Makerfabs factory. You can learn more about Keyboard FeatherWing on Tindie.

@Dear readers, if you are seeking a trustable and fast PCBA supplier and EMS (Electronics Manufacturing Service) for your new projects, now send emails to us , to begin an easy & cool PCBA production experience.

5 Tips for Saving Money on PCB Manufacturing

Whether you&#;re a business or an individual, money is a common resource that we all would like to save on. When it comes to PCBs, it makes sense to not skimp on quality for the price, but that doesn&#;t mean there aren&#;t other ways to save money. The cost of manufacturing printed circuit boards depends on numerous factors and these factors should be considered while you are designing your product in order to help you minimise costs.

Here are 5 tips that could help you reduce your PCB manufacturing costs.

 

Minimise Your Board Size

One of the main factors that can have a big impact on the cost of production, is the size of the printed circuit board. If you require a bigger circuit board, then it will be easier to route, but it will also be costlier to produce. This also works the other way around. If your PCB is too small, then you may need extra layers and the PCB manufacturer may need to use more precise equipment to manufacture and assemble your boards. This will also increase the costs.

Ultimately, it all comes down to how complex your printed circuit board needs to be in order to support your end product. It&#;s a good idea to keep in mind that less is more when designing your board.

 

Don&#;t Avoid High-Quality Materials

Although this may sound counter-productive when you are trying to save money on manufacturing PCBs, it&#;s actually very beneficial to go for higher quality materials for your product. There may be a higher upfront initial cost but using higher quality materials for your printed circuit board means that your end product will be more reliable. This may even save you from a headache later on if your PCBs have problems due to low-quality materials.

If you opt for cheaper quality materials, then your product could risk having problems or failure which will then have to be returned and fixed, as a result, costing you more money.

 

Use Standard Circuit Board Shapes

If your end product permits doing so, it can be quite cost-effective to go with the conventional circuit board shapes. Designing your printed circuit board in the standard square or rectangular shapes like most PCBs means that PCB manufacturers will have an easier time fabricating your boards. Custom designs will mean that the PCB manufacturer will have to specifically cater to your needs which will cost more. Unless you need to design a PCB with a custom shape, it&#;s generally a good idea to keep it simple and stick to conventions.

 

Stick with Industry Standard Sizes & Components

There are standard sizes and components in the electronics industry for a reason. Essentially, it makes everything simpler and more efficient as it opens up the possibility for automation. If your PCB is designed to use the standard sizes, then PCB manufacturers won&#;t have to use as many resources for fabricating a board with bespoke specifications.

This also applies to the components on your circuit board as well. Surface mount components require less drilling than through-hole which makes these components ideal for cost-savings and for saving time. Unless you have a complex design, it&#;s a good idea to use the standard surface mount components as it will help reduce the number of holes that are needed to be drilled into the circuit board.

 

Longer Lead Times

Depending on your PCB manufacturer, there may be additional costs for manufacturing or assembling your circuit boards if you require a faster turn-around time. To help you keep any additional costs down, try to allow as long of a lead time as you can. This way, PCB manufacturers won&#;t need to use extra resources to speed up your turn-around time which means a lower cost for you.

Those are our 5 top tips for saving money on manufacturing or assembling your printed circuit boards. If you&#;re looking for ways to save money on manufacturing your PCBs then make sure you keep your PCB design as standard as you can, consider using higher quality materials to reduce the risk of problems and allow as much lead time as you can. These factors all contribute to a cheaper price.

 

Contact Clarydon for PCB Manufacturing

Clarydon Electronic Services has a wealth of expertise in manufacturing and assembling PCBs. If you require printed circuit board manufacturing or assembly, then please get in touch with one of our PCB specialists and we would be happy to help.

Call us on 606 000 or you can us at [ protected].

Want more information on OEM PCBA Service? Feel free to contact us.