Quick turn PCB fabrication is a highly demanded service these days. There is an increasing demand for quick bulk PCB fabrication across light, mechanical, and automation, aerospace, and aircraft industries. Rapidly evolving devices and technologies have accelerated this demand. Most devices still depend on PCBs to improve their productivity and utility. It can be rightly said that the need for quick turn PCB manufacturing is growing by the day. Nowadays, original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) in the aforementioned industries are always looking for ways to partner with trusted quick turn PCB fabrication services because they help reduce production time and cost. This time and cost-saving can be in terms of design, fabrication, and delivery. In case you are unaware of the concept of quick-turn PCBs, then this post is for you. This post introduces quick turn PCB fabrication and discusses how it offers different benefits to electronics OEMs.
Quick Turn PCB Fabrication and Its Steps Discussed in Brief
Quick turn PCB manufacturing is a process of rapid PCB design, and development. In this process, the PCBs are designed to custom specifications and then are fabricated within a stipulated time duration. Rapid production of PCBs requires advanced technologies and specific automation resources. This type of PCB production is generally adopted for prototype manufacturing, pre-production trial production run (beta run), or final batch production. Quick turn PCB manufacturing can be done in small-volume batches of 25-500 PCBs. In the case of complex custom designs, the contract manufacturers go for very small batches of 25 PCBs. This helps in completing the production within a restricted time period.
There are multiple activities involved in quick turn PCB production. Let us discuss these activities in brief.
- Design and Prototyping: Quick turn PCBs are designed and prototyped in order to prevent errors during rapid production. The digital prototypes are manufactured and are tested for design specification. Generally, in quick turn PCB fabrication, the designs and prototypes are prepared beforehand.
- Component Mounting: For rapid component mounting, automated pick-and-place robotic arms are used. This quickens the speed of component placement and reduces the chances of human errors during quick turn PCB manufacturing.
- Assembly: The assembly processes like surface mount technology (SMT), through-hole technology (THT), or hybrid technology can be adopted in quick turn PCB assembly. However, SMT is preferred due to its compatibility with automation.
- Inspection: The manufactured PCBs are tested for functionality and precision by using different inspection techniques such as flying probe tests, x-ray tests, UV inspection, etc.
- Although quick turn PCB manufacturing follows all the steps in the standard PCB manufacturing cycle in a restricted time, this process holds great significance across industries. Let us discuss why quick turn PCB manufacturing is highly important.
Significance of Quick Turn PCB Fabrication
The importance of quick turn PCB manufacturing is due to the time and cost-saving abilities of this process. The following pointers will help you understand it better.
- Most contract manufacturers can accommodate last-minute changes. This reduces time on communication between the customer and the service provider.
- Designing and fabrication automation helps improve the accuracy of the PCBs. This way, the time on inspection gets reduced too.
- Automation resources are one-time investments on the manufacturer’s end, therefore regardless of the number of production cycles, the capital cost remains the same. Also, as the production is rapid, the cost of operation reduces.
Considering all the above-mentioned points, it is absolutely clear that quick turn PCB fabrication services can be beneficial. However, the quality of production is essential consideration while sourcing these services. This is why you should source quick turn PCB assembly services from reliable manufacturers like Rigiflex Technology, Inc. The company offers high-quality custom PCB manufacturing services. They cater to industries like medical, networking and communication, automotive, etc by providing quick turn PCB fabrication services to the.
