A Peek into the World of PCB Assembly and Manufacturers
Placing a PCB assembly order is very easy these days—you can do it online and save a lot of time. You can also get quotes from different suppliers or manufactures and then select the one that is the lowest and the best. Once the contract electronic manufacturing Services are selected, you will have to place the order. While placing the order, you will have to give the details of the job and then make the payment. By and large, you will have to make a 20% initial or advance payment so that the work gets a head start.
The payment terms and conditions can be handled at the initial stage and payments can be given at every milestone. Most contract electronic manufacturing companies would assign a project manager who would take care of all the deliveries. The primary requirement for the PCB assembly task is the job files. Once these files are obtained, the contract electronic manufacturing company can start the assembly work. In addition to the job files, the contract electronic manufacturing company will also need the sample PCBs and the parts in order to start the task. When you are sending the parts to the PCB assembly company, you will have to make sure that you send them as one kit per box.
If you mix the parts for different jobs, then the PCB assembly company will have to sort them first—which is a tedious task. There are some PCB assembly companies that may charge you extra when you send the PCB parts in one box. When you are sending the parts right from the supplier, then you will have to mention the order number on shipping label or pack slip. If you don’t have the right parts for the PCBs, then you can check with some of the best PCB Layout & Design Services. The best PCB Layout & Design Services are offering PCB design services such as Schematic Capture, Component Footprint Capture, PCB Design, PCB Layout, and Prototype Procurement.
Reputed PCB design services will have capabilities for single sided and double sided PCB boards. These PCB manufactures will also show expertise in multiple layer boards and mixed technologies. If you have high driven constraint driven requirements, then you will have to choose a PCB manufacturers that has engineers and technical staff that will deliver comprehensive designs. Selecting a PCB manufacturer who ensures efficient and cost effective designs will surely have a great impact on the overall project. When a PCB manufacturer has a ‘done right the first tine’ attitude, you will not have any problems of errors or duplications.
PCB designs are generally prepared using industry standard PCB design software. Some of these software are CADSoft (EAGLE) Cadence, Mentor Graphics and Altium. As a delivery, the PCB manufactures will provide you with a Read Me file, Systemic (in pdf), PCB Netlist (which is mostly in the text form. The Read Me file is a very important file because it contains all relevant guidelines and details.