Is the idea to hire electronic designing services for maximum output, wise?

If you feel that hiring a third party electronic designing company is going to benefit you only a little, then think twice. Many electronic device makers, especially small and midsized ones often feel that they have all their sources covered up. However, they would be surprised to find out what a third party agency can do for them.

Whether you need help with a design, want a product schematics built right from the scratch or need some help for simply fine tuning the industrial processes, partnership with a contract based manufacturer is going to benefit you significantly.

Ahead is a quick guide on what contract based electronics design services can do for you and what to expect from third party contractors. The first solution to expect from contractual services is the electronic prototyping. Sometimes a company may have an excellent product idea which can only be brought into reality with right resources in hand.

With the help of third party designing services, you can bring your product idea into reality without investing into costly resources. Since contractors have all the mechanical resources, they are not likely to take very long before coming up with the most promising electronic circuit sample.

They have fast turnaround time which helps companies become familiar with the device quickly and also explain it to their clients. Careful planning gives you surety that the process will go without a hitch.

Next thing to expect from designing solutions is product reviewing. Sure your company may have excellent engineers and designers but there is no harm in listening to the verdict of outside professionals by allowing them to take a look at the electronic product.

Remember, contract based companies have years of experience  which is why they are often able to sport flawed areas in the product schematics very quickly and sections which can be improved and made better. This is eventually going to result in a more affordable, compact, faster and efficient working device.

There are incidences when a team of engineers is stuck with technical issues. The problem could be a device not working at all or not functioning as per required standards. Sometimes in-house processes are not able to spot the faulty point.

In those struggling times, third party electronic designers are sometimes better able to come up with right solution by looking at the product from a fresh prospective and different insight. This way reworking a design becomes faster.

Specializations of electronic product development companies

Manufacturing of electronic components is not everybody’s cup of tea, because it is a complex process, which requires experts to handle it. Right from the initial designing to the final product development, everything is handled by the experts of electronic development company.

Below mentioned are some of the services of electronic product design that good development company offers:

The initial step which is conducted by the manufacturing department of electronic industry is prototype designing. Before the development task is preceded, it is important for developer to ensure that designing is carried out perfectly. A slight flaw can ruin the whole product, therefore, while designing prototype ensuring perfection is highly important step to be carried out by professionals.

After completion of designing of prototype, then mass scale production of the goods is carried out. During this process, client’s requirements are taken into consideration and according to that production of goods is carried out. The development of products comprise of everything, right from PCB assemblies to custom electronic circuit manufacturing. However, before starting with the manufacturing process, client is first shown the sample of design. Once the client is satisfied with the initial design, then later the design is sent for manufacturing process.

Once client has approved the design, the next step that is conducted by electronic company is manufacturing. During this process, testing is conducted so that flaws are corrected, if any. The components which have errors they were discarded, rest were passed after complying it with the guidelines of industries. This is an important step before delivering the product to client so that no complaints are logged. This is why majority of professional companies make sure that the final product is made in accordance with the industrial guidelines.

Numerous companies offer the aforementioned services, however, finding one from the hoard, which is capable enough to cater these services perfectly is hard to find. Moreover, you cannot rely all for these services; therefore, before making a choice for a company or before hiring a development company make sure to do a thorough research. Always go for certified company because it is the best way to know that company is skilled in offering these services. Moreover, you would not want to spoil your brand name and goodwill by contacting an unreliable and non-certified manufacturer.

Steps through which the fabrication of PCBs take place

With the emergence of Printed Circuit Board technology, the electronic industry transformed from labor-intensive manufacturing to automated manufacturing.
Printed circuit board is, a board with multiple electrical components are mounted on it and are inter-connected to each other through copper pathways, used to build electronic devices. They do not just connect components using copper traces etched over board’s surface, but also make them mechanically strong.  The basic building blocks of modern electronics, PCBs are found in electronics of various industries such as consumer electronics, telecommunications, military electronics, medical, aerospace, and automotive electronics, industrial electronics, and instrumentation.
The design of the required circuit is generated by sending it in a certain format to plotters and images for PCB manufacturing are produced. Following this step, the fabrication of the boards starts. In the next sections, we will understand various steps through which manufacturing of a printed circuit board take place:

• The very first step in board fabrication is machining that includes drilling to punch holes, route plotting using special types of machines and state-of-the-art technologies like laser and water jet cutting. It is important to inform you that the strength of board should be considered while making and fine holes with accurate diameters.
• Following machining, imaging is performed. This step involves the transformation of design pattern on to the each layer. The single and double-layered printed circuit boards involve printing of patterns through printing technology (that involves printing and etching). On the other hand, multi-layer boards involve photo imaging which is accomplished through flood screen printing, coating, roller laminating etc. Manufacturers also use the most recent technique, direct laser, and liquid crystal light imaging, to form excellent printed circuit board design.
• Next step is lamination, which is employed on multi-layer boards. During lamination process, epoxy resin infused glass sheets are placed between two PCB layers. To produce the strong bond between layers hydraulic press is used.
• Now the process of PCB fabrication reaches to plating. This is accomplished either through wet or through dry chemical process.
• As the final step in board manufacturing, etching is performed. In this unwanted metal is removed from the board surface. This is accomplished through dry or wet processes. The most important thing to focus upon is uniformity. In this, spraying of ammonia solution is done on the copper film and excess copper is removed at the same time protecting the pathways and pads.

What is involved in the environment stress screening for PCB manufacturing?

An extremely crucial part and process that falls under PCB designing and manufacturing is the reliability testing. As the name suggests, this procedure determines the correctness of PCB design and how well it will  be able to withstand harsh conditions, deliver desired output and whether it has any faulty points or not.

ESS or environment stress screening is the most important tool under this type of testing. It exposes the board design to a variety of environment stresses and conditions to see how well it encounters those situations. The kind of stresses, a design is generally exposed to would be vibrations, power cycling and rapid temperature variations.

It helps in identifying any hidden and unknown defects and faults in electronic product design and structure, so that the team of engineers could work on those faults and flaws before finalizing the design and product. Electronic devices, gadgets and products have become an essential part of every modern industry. ESS gives the makers of electronic devices, gadgets and equipment a chance to look deeper into the layout and work on the design before going ahead in the production line and actual development of the product.

Before beginning with screening, the electronic manufacturer must first determine the type and number of flaws and defects, the design is most likely to have and the maximum acceptable number of defects. The aim of this testing is not to remove those latent defects, but to recognize them and put the type and number of flaws into a category which is acceptable.

Manufacturers that work on contractual basis make sure to implement ESS testing and provide their clients with the resulting recommendations and data. They make use of certain software applications for this purpose in order to draft the data that explains the failure of product during the testing phases. Below mentioned are some major points that you can expect to find in one such report.

·         List of components that failed

·         Time and date of failure

·         Tests that caused the failure

·         Tester’s name

·         A description explaining the symptoms of failures

·         Some additional important information associated with the failure

The last phase in PCB testing is monitoring which is generating reports and comparing the results of ESS with the set expectations. The parameters considered during comparison can vary as per the product and components under testing. However, some common parameters are:

·         Screen strength

·         Defects remaining

·         Incoming defects

·         Trend analysis

Designing and implementing a good testing process such as ESS is beneficial in more than one way, whether applied during the initial electronic productdesign stage or at any later stage of production.

How PCB prototyping helps in verifying electronic circuit design and other associated aspects?

Before you go ahead and order large volumes of circuit boards for the next design, the wise idea would be to first go for an assembling prototype in order to test it for errors. Prototyping has made such testing possible so that manufacturer is saved from losing big money in case anything goes wrong during final phase of production.
Although the financial advantage is prominent aspect of prototype assembly, but there are other benefits also. Outlined below are some of its benefits:
Changing the design:
Prototyping shows you how the final product will appear in the final stage. If the layout of electronic circuit design seems inappropriate or not efficient, enough for the company and the clients, then it becomes possible to make changes in the final design. Since you are dealing with only a low volume of prototypes, manufacture gets free from spending countless dollars just to make some simple changes to improve the assembly.
Troubleshooting:
The worst thing would be ordering large volumes of circuits, spending money and taking time to get everything assembled only to realize that after the product has reached the client, the PCBs are not working up to the standards. Definitely, everything first goes through testing, yet sometimes even the smallest of errors can create blunder. With the help of prototyping, PCB goes through rigorous testing phases to ensure that it will work without any failure during the life time.
Quality assurance
Apart from providing designing and troubleshooting advantages, prototype assembling also helps in finding out which category and type of devices are functional and in working condition, and which ones needs replacement or updating. As the technology is upgrading every day, components are constantly becoming obsolete. A prototype helps in finding out what will work best for you PCBs and assure highest level of quality.
New Products
A manufacture creates a prototype before he is going to implement a new product for the clients. Whether there is a need of a batch with low volume or a need to perform prototype assembling quickly, each new product has to go through testing and revision in order to implement required changes before taking it to the last assembly stage.
Testing assemblies
If you are looking for a quality PCB assembly service provider company, you can do it after requesting a prototype assembling work as per the design and specification. Depending upon the quality of prototype work carried out, you can assess how well the company listens to the request. It also gives an idea of costs they will charge and depending on whether you liked the quality of work done, you can see whether they fit the business requirement or not.
PCB prototyping assembly helps in assessing which electronic circuit design  would be ideal and would saves the manufacturers from losses.

How electronic circuit design is created?

As the technology advances, makers of electronic component and devices are now leaning towards the achievement of compactness. To achieve better and more efficient production of electronic gadgets and devices, the focus is shifting towards improving the circuit structure and design and hence, each production unit has research and development department that works to improve the efficiency by introducing unique and more effective circuit designs.

One who is a part of electronic industry would be familiar with how complex is the process of manufacturing a circuit or board and how much groundwork goes into producing an ideal and final output for a product in this industry. However, in this article we will discuss what the procedure of designing a circuit is. Take a look:

Every device in this industry is created for a certain purpose, be it educational, or for entertainment purpose. So the underlying purpose of the circuit which is going to be designed first needs to be evaluated and figured out before going towards the next step. As per the complexity of what task has to be accomplished, the project is further subdivided into other functions that work collectively in the pursuit of stated task.

After figuring out the purpose and task to be done, next comes the task of picking necessary components required for building the circuit. Here physical components are not bought, only the specifications and datasheets are prepared to design the sub-circuits. The phase is crucial as the characteristics and tolerances are worked out here for the entire project. For instance, is the circuit going to be exposed to hear to other mechanics and stresses such as shaking, falling, etc.? Accordingly the chosen components will be required to fit in with those resistances, features and outside conditions as well as electric needs such as current draw, etc.

After this, comes the phase of schematic designing in which the electronic circuit design is created with the help of diagrams. The schema is used as a guide and document for final implementation, because the schematic design is the one which goes on to be finally converted into actual and physical circuit board. This phase is quite challenging as it involves multiple types of analysis so as to make the circuit work as required.

Once the functional part of the circuit part is designed which has been represented with schemas, next phase is designing the board into physical form. This is the step where actual physical components are soldered on to the circuit. Manufactures make use of several automated tools for creating boards with a schematic design. Since manual designing is highly complex and difficult, especially in terms of big projects, it becomes nearly impossible to carry it out manually. That is why automated technology and tools are used for this phase.

Understanding the process and steps involved in the  electronic circuit design  procedure is crucial for developing and manufacturing an ideal circuit board product.