Month: January 2019

Is the future of manufacturing additive?

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The potential uses for 3D printing were widely misunderstood when it first appeared on the scene.

Tech pundits and futurologists joined forces to proclaim that 3D print would usher in a consumer revolution, as individuals took control of the means of production for themselves.

But, as we highlighted in our last blog, the benefits of 3D printing are now actually reshaping the manufacturing sector, rather than making it redundant.

The trend towards Additive Manufacturing

You can chart the change in the perceived benefits of 3D printing. As it changes from being seen as a consumer tool to a production tool, the use of the term ‘Additive Manufacturing’ (AM) dramatically rises.

This is how searches for AM are reported by Google Trends:

additive manufacturing

3D printing and AM are now used interchangeably as terms.

Peter Zelinski, the editor-in-chief of Additive Manufacturing magazine, reminds us we should bear in mind that AM also refers to other technologies and processes.

These include:

  • Rapid prototyping
  • Direct digital manufacturing
  • Layered manufacturing
  • Additive fabrication

Revealing synonyms

Synonyms, other than 3D printing, that are increasingly used for AM hint strongly at the benefits it offers – and that we will review further below:

  • Desktop manufacturing
    Suggests how AM frees production from the tyranny of tooling
  • Rapid manufacturing 
    Echoes rapid prototyping
    Suggests the speed of both prototyping and manufacture that 3D print offers
  • On-demand manufacturing
    Echoes on-demand printing
    Suggests the ability to cost-effectively create bespoke, tailored products

 

Additive Manufacturing

AM describes any technology that creates something by cumulatively adding layers of material.

The range of materials that can be used is ever-expanding and includes plastics, metals and concrete. In the very near future advances in biotechnology will inevitably see human tissue included in this list.

The basis of AM is computerised 3D modelling (or CAD). The data from this is used to add successive layers of liquid, powder or sheet material to manufacture a 3D object.

AM is fundamentally different to traditional manufacturing processes. These typically have a high up-front cost that is related to the need to create tooling.

  • Moulds are required by formative manufacturing technologies (such as injection moulding)
  • Cutting tools are needed for subtractive technologies (such as CNC machining).

The uses of Additive Manufacturing

This is what AM does well:

  • It is best suited to the production of single (or a limited number) of parts
  • It has an incredibly quick turnaround time
  • It has very low set-up costs
  • It can produce complex geometric shapes that are not producible using traditional manufacturing methods

In the past it was the case that the lower strength of objects it created could be an issue – and similarly it had proved wanting where functional parts with tight tolerances were called for – but this is increasingly not the case.

For instance in 2017, Siemens created the first gas turbine blades ever produced using 3D printing. Following performance testing under full-load conditions, these blades were found to survive temperatures above 1,250oC and pressures similar to the weight of a double-decker bus.

Siemens created the first gas turbine blades ever produced using 3D printing

Source: Future Makers

What’s more, the blades traditionally took over a year to make but, with 3D technology, they took just eight weeks.

Early uses of AM harnessed its benefits for rapid prototyping, but more recently it is being used to fabricate end-use products in aircraft, dental restorations, medical implants, automobiles and even fashion products.

“This technology will impact pretty much every market sector, whether it’s shoes, whether its clothes, automobile parts, aeroplane parts, medical devices or electronics.”

Michael Todd, Global Head of Innovation at Henkel

Source: 3D metal work printing (image courtesy of Davidfotografie/Arup).

The benefits of Additive Manufacturing

 

The speed of production and lack of tooling requirements are a big plus for manufacturers. They enable designers to rapidly and cost-effectively prototype designs for verification and testing. In the past it took days or even weeks to receive a prototype – now AM places a model in the designer’s hands within hours.

This speed is further enhanced by the efficiencies AM can offer. Most parts require a large number of manufacturing steps to be produced traditionally, but AM completes the build in just one step. Freed from the constraints of, for example, machining and welding, new designs and possibilities can be explored.

For single (or low) volume runs, AM’s lack of tooling offers distinct cost advantages. It removes the need for a skilled machine operator to be present during the manufacture.

It is these cost and time benefits that have led to many innovative uses of AM. Nowhere is this more so than in the production of customised products. It is now possible to reduce the cost of bespoke products such as dental implants, hearing aids, prosthetics and, perhaps even in the near future, body tissue.

As well as medical and dental uses this capability is also seeing AM used for specialised military, automotive and aeronautical parts, as well as for customised fits on sporting equipment and fashionwear.

Is additive manufacturing the future?

As consumer trends move toward customisation, and increased competition demands lower and lower lead times, there is a clear place for AM in the future.

And it’s looking like it can disrupt niche manufacturers requiring specialist tolerances and precision as well as those serving the mass, consumer market.

At present, there are two main factors that restrict its use:

  • Scalability
    AM still can’t cost-effectively manufacture higher volumes of products
  • Versatility
    The range of materials that AM can use for manufacture is expanding but, for example, it still struggles to handle true silicones

However, its capabilities are continually expanding.

And it’s here to stay.

Richard Hague, Professor of Innovative Manufacturing at the University of Nottingham, firmly stakes its place in the future of manufacturing:

“I don’t think additive manufacturing is an emerging technology any more. I think it’s emerged, and many people are already using it – and using it successfully.”

How is 3D printing freeing up design space?

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“If by some miracle some prophet could describe the future exactly as it was
going to take place, his predictions would sound so absurd, so far-fetched that everyone would laugh him to scorn.”
Arthur C. Clarke, author, speaking in 1964

Science fiction writer Arthur C. Clarke went on from making this observation to describe the forthcoming advent of 3D printing.

And, sure enough, it came to pass.

Today, as 3D printing quite literally breaks the design and manufacturing mould across a range of sectors, it’s time to assess its true impact and where it may take us next.

The path that 3D printing has taken bears very little resemblance to what the prophets foresaw. Throughout the early years of the new millennium, futurists prophesised it would usher in a new consumer society. In this brave new world, the need to visit shops to buy things would be gone – and so too would the need to rely on online retailers’ massive warehouses to deliver our goods.

Soon, we were told, we would all be downloading a design file to our personal 3D printer and manufacturing our products – exactly as we wanted them to be – from the comfort of our homes.

Of course, this consumer revolution never happened.

However, a sea-change is quietly washing over the design, manufacturing and production sectors, one that is not deluded tech fantasy, but very real indeed.

Richard Hague, professor of innovative manufacturing at the University of Nottingham, compares the hype and reality of 3D printing with the dotcom crash of the late 90s.

“There were all these expectations about what the internet would do, and then the hype disappeared. But meanwhile, in the background, people were forging ahead, and actually some major industries emerged after that point. I think that’s where we are now.”

We’re going to look in more detail in our next blog at how 3D printing has led to additive manufacturing. We’ll chart how its disruptive potential is transforming the processes used – and products made – by sectors as diverse as medical, military, automotive, aerospace and electronics.

First, though, in this blog we’re going to highlight how 3D printing has also been freeing up the design space in which new products can be imagined and then tested.

3D printing and design

Let’s start with the basics.

There are a number of ways to print in 3D, but all are based on creating a digital model as a physical three-dimensional object by the gradual addition of material a layer at a time.

It is this process of addition that makes 3D printing a radically different way of manufacturing. Traditional technologies are based on subtraction from materials (such as CNC machining) or forming these existing materials (such as injection moulding).

One of the key benefits of 3D printing is that no special tooling or moulds are required – and this leads to many of the benefits we discuss below and in our next blog.

The 3D printing process is initiated directly from the digital model that forms the blueprint of the manufactured object. This model is sliced by the printer’s software into incredibly thin, 2-D layers and these are translated into the machine language (G-code) that the printer executes.

It is at this stage that 3D printers differ in their operation. For example, desktop FDM printers melt plastic filaments that are laid down through a nozzle, whereas large industrial SLS machines use lasers to melt (or sinter) thin layers of metal or plastic powders.

For more information about 3D printing technologies, this excellent guide from 3D Hubs details the differences.

Despite the possible production speeds of as little as four hours, it’s important to note that 3D printed parts often require some post-processing (usually manual) to achieve the desired level of finish.

3D printing and design benefits

Generally speaking, 3D printing is the best option when:

  • A single (or only a few) parts are required
  • A quick turnaround time and a low-cost is needed
  • When the part geometry cannot be produced with any other manufacturing technology
  • When high material requirements and tight tolerances for functional parts are not essential

Faster verification of designs

One of the main advantages of 3D printing is undoubtedly the speed at which parts can be produced compared to traditional manufacturing methods. The lead time on an injection moulding die alone can be a finger-tapping matter of weeks.

Complex designs can be uploaded from a CAD model and printed in a matter of hours. This offers designers rapid verification of design ideas.

It cuts out the need to create tools to create parts and also places the capabilities of production within the working space of the designer themselves – as opposed to at a plant that may be geographically remote from them.

Efficiencies

3D printing allows designers to manufacture products and parts as efficiently as possible, cutting down on the number of manufacturing steps required by traditional technologies. These may include cutting, welding, polishing, drilling, mounting, sandblasting, priming and painting. 3D printing can complete all these steps as one, with no interaction from the machine operator.

Cost-savings for prototypes

Particularly where labour costs are concerned, 3D printing can slash the design costs for manufacturing prototypes.

Post-processing aside, the majority of 3D printers only require an operator to press a button. Compared to traditional manufacturing’s reliance on highly skilled machinists, the labour costs for a 3D printer barely register.

This means that for the creation of prototypes that verify the form and fit of a product, 3D printing is significantly cheaper than other methods.

Freeing up design space

The restrictions of traditional manufacturing on what can and can’t be made hold much less relevance for 3D printing. Design requirements such as draft angles, undercuts and tool access do not apply to designers using additive manufacture.

This gives designers a large amount of design freedom and enables the creation of very complex geometries.

Customisation

Another freedom that 3D printing allows is the ability to completely customise designs. As additive manufacturing technologies excel in building single parts one at a time, they are perfectly suited for one-off production of unique, bespoke designs.

Source: Wired 

This ability has transformed the medical and dental industry to realise the manufacture of custom prosthetics, implants and dental aids. High-level sporting gear can now be tailored to fit an athlete perfectly and the fashion industry is also proving quick to realise the custom design benefits of 3D printing.

Source: 3D natives

The brave new world of 3D printing

We opened with a quote from Arthur C. Clarke suggesting that prophets of the future risk appearing ‘so far-fetched that everyone laughs them to scorn’.

The design benefits of 3D printing are not far-fetched hype: they are here, they are happening and they are making a real difference to the world we live in.

In our next blog we’ll look at how these benefits are not only transforming design but manufacture itself.

A short history of the PCB

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As PCBs increasingly shrink in size, their capabilities, power and importance continue to grow.

Space travel, the consumer electronics boom and many ground-breaking (and life-saving) medical devices are quite simply unimaginable without the humble PCB.

The world market for blank PCBs exceeded $60 billion for the first time in 2014 – and it’s estimated to reach nearly $80 billion by 2024.

Let’s review how we got here – and where we might be going – with a short history of the PCB.

A short history of the PCB

Point-to-point precursors

Before the development of PCBs, circuits were wired point-to-point on a chassis.

This was usually made from a sheet metal frame with a wooden bottom. Insulators connected the components to the chassis and their leads were connected by soldering.

They worked – but they also left a lot to be desired. They were large, bulky, heavy and relatively fragile, not to mention being incredibly labour-intensive and costly to produce.

Early innovators point to the way forward

At the turn of the 20th century a number of innovations began to pave the way for the PCB – but it would take 36 years for these to coalesce into the PCB as we know and love it.

In 1903 Albert Hanson filed a British patent for a device described as a flat, foil conductor on an insulating board with multiple layers and the next year Thomas Edison experimented with various chemical methods to plate conductors onto linen paper.

By 1913 Arthur Berry was busy in the UK filing a patent that described a print-and-etch method while, across the pond, Max Shoop obtained a US patent for flame-spraying metal onto a board through a patterned mask.

We were getting closer – but there was still no cigar.

The first real breakthrough moment must be awarded to Charles Ducas.

He applied to the US Patent Office in 1927 to protect his method of electroplating circuit patterns. The process he used placed an electronic path directly onto an insulated surface. Copper wires were not yet available for these printed wire circuits, so the first almost-recognisable PCB was made from brass wires.

The music printing industry creates the first PCB

Closely resembling a PCB, Ducas’ electroplated circuits were only intended to be used as a flat heating coil. There was no actual electrical connectivity between board and components, but it was only going to be a matter of time until this was realised.

And it was realised by an Austrian engineer on the run from the Nazis. Working in the English music printing industry, Paul Eisler developed his PCBs partly while in jail as an illegal alien.

It was in 1936 that Eisler first produced a PCB as part of a radio. Eisler’s dream was to use the printing process to allow electronic circuits to be laid onto an insulating base in high volumes. At the time, the hand-soldered circuit wires were error-prone and not easily scalable.

The demands of war led to the PCB’s wider adoption

It wasn’t until 1943 that Eisler’s dream became a reality. In 1943 the USA began using his technology on the scale he envisioned to manufacture proximity fuses for use in World War II.

After the war, in 1948, the US military released their innovations into commercial use and the stage was set for a much wider adoption of PCBs.

Despite this, printed circuits did not become commonplace in consumer electronics until the mid-1950s. It was in the baby boomer years that the auto-assembly process developed by the United States Army Signal Corps allowed for much faster creation of PCBs.

This process was developed by Moe Abramson and Stanislaus F. Danko in 1949. It used component leads inserted into a copper foil interconnection pattern and dip soldering to speed things up.

This concept, complemented by board lamination and etching techniques, remains the standard PCB fabrication process used today. It solved once and for all the time-consuming demands and high costs of through-hole construction, which required holes to be drilled through the PCB for the wires of every component.

 

Multilayer PCBs and Surface Mount Technology

The rise in popularity of multilayer PCBs with more than two, and especially with more than four, copper planes was concurrent with the adoption of Surface Mount technology (SMT).

This began in the 1960s but it wasn’t until the 1980s that it was fully adopted as standard.

SMT was developed by IBM, and the densely packed components it allowed found their first practical use in the Saturn rocket boosters.

Throughout the 1970s, the circuitry and overall size of the boards were shrinking in size.

Components were mechanically redesigned to be soldered directly onto the PCB surface – and hot air soldering methods helped achieve this.

As components became smaller, they were increasingly placed on both sides of the board, allowing for much smaller PCB assemblies with higher circuit densities.

Surface mounting lends itself well to a high degree of automation, reducing labour costs and greatly increasing production rates.

 

Gerber and EDA in the 1980s

 

Despite these developments, many PCBs were still being drawn by hand with a light board and stencils until the 1980s.

The arrival of computers and EDA software, such as Protel and Eagle, was about to completely change the design and manufacture of PCBs.

Today designs are saved as Gerber text files and these coordinates are fed directly into the manufacturing machinery.

The HDI era of the 1990s

In 1995 we saw the first use of micro-via technology in PCB production, introducing the era of High Density Interconnect (HDI) PCBs.

HDI technology allowed for a denser design on the PCB and significantly smaller components. As a result, components can be closer and the paths between them shorter.

This is achieved through the use of blind (or buried) vias or microvias, which offers enhanced reliability and lower costs, especially for multilayer PCBs. HDI technology is particularly favoured for computer, mobile phones, medical and military equipment.

And into the future

Which brings us bang up to date.

But why stop there?

The incredible advances of the last 80 years show no signs of slowing.

In fact, the opposite: Moore’s law is far from being repealed, despite what you may have heard.

Here’s just a few of the forthcoming PCB features that will drive new capabilities and developments.

  • Recent advances in 3D printing, using liquid inks that contains electronic functionalities, are leading to several applications for PCB manufacture.
  • The increased use of integrated circuit chips to deliver millions of tiny resistors, capacitors, and transistors fabricated on a semiconductor wafer.
  • The space-saving benefits and electrical performance benefits offered by package on package (POP) and embedded component techniques
  • Greater environmental awareness is spearheading research into the possibility of adopting PCBs made from paper
  • As medical technology look to create an endless feedback loop between patient, doctor and device flexible circuitry for wearables looks set to drive innovation
  • Photonics and PCB are inching closer and herald efficiency, miniaturisation and flexibility on a scale previously unimaginable, as photons, rather than electrons, are used to route electrical signals.
  • Wave technology may even replace the need for a physical medium to connect components – these are copper-less PCBs for a wireless age

How to frontload the manufacturing process for electronic NPIs

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Frontloading-1080x675

How to frontload the manufacturing process for NPIs – and avoid a lot of heavy lifting later

John Johnston, NPI Director, Chemigraphic

Let’s be blunt: DfM (Design for Manufacture) is not something you can bolt-on after the fact.

It simply has to be there from the start. Once a design is released to production, and especially after it has been validated for regulatory compliance, then design change costs can be prohibitive. There is often a singular, and closing, window of DfM opportunity that must be grasped to avoid later complications.

Working closely with an EMS partner from the earliest possible stage ensures that both manufacturing and supply chain considerations are factored into your designs.

And it means they are factored in before there are major cost and time implications.

Frontloading manufacturing concerns is not an additional barrier to faster completion.

In fact, it’s quite the opposite.

Through earlier consideration you cut down on the number of costly design re-starts that may be needed later in the manufacturing process – and you get your end-product to market faster.

By getting a manufacturing supplier involved early on in your design process it allows us to gain a clear understanding of your business objectives and to marry these to the development of your product. This allows you to identify and eliminate potential pitfalls and delays before they arise.

Of course, it’s not all about avoiding problems. It’s also about creating better products.

Through early stage involvement your EMS partner can also ensure optimal efficiency is achieved through practical and often seemingly minor changes. Such adjustments can deliver substantial tangible benefits without affecting your product’s quality or adding cost to it.

Although an individual design amendment may make modest savings if taken in isolation, this benefit is of course enjoyed for every item ever made, over the entire lifetime of that product.  This often becomes embedded into normal practice that then percolates into other designs thereafter, making the “accumulation of marginal gains” very significant indeed.

Not all design changes in the electronics industry are caused by issues directly related to the manufacturing process.

Even the most perfectly designed piece of electronics, presenting zero fabrication, regulatory or inspection issues, can create critical delays and costly substitutions if components are not sustainably available.

Unexpected breaks in the supply chain are, in today’s environment, an ever-larger threat.

Product design engineers are often focused on component selection to achieve the desired functional performance and sometimes struggle to see beyond the immediate prototype or small-batch production stages.

A high-capability EMS partner can offer valuable input to help create selections that are also sustainable and cost effective, addressing future requirements when the product ramps into eventual production volumes or off-shore manufacturing locations.

A proactive EMS approach can also widen options to include considerations such as component packaging- selecting functional equivalents that are available in “machine friendly” packaging formats. This then means that automated assembly options can be applied for further cost, efficiency and removal of any risk of human error, considerations which can be overlooked by product design engineers.

The marketplace for components can be fraught with historical supplier mergers and takeovers so an EMS specialist who has oversight of all a marketplace dynamics can often offer advice regarding parts which are exactly the same and built in the same factory, but have different branding and no unnecessary price premiums attached.

However, there should never be any requirement to compromise product integrity by going to dubious or unqualified sources. Any short-term cost benefits can be massively outweighed by eventual corrective measures when things go wrong.

Reviewing the risk of obsolescence is very much a part of designing for the realities of manufacture. These supply chain breaks may be due to:

  • Changes in distribution
  • Components being placed end of life
  • Stocks being allocated as they run low
  • Or mergers and acquisitions creating ever-widening ripples.

Regardless of the reason, it’s possible to avoid many problems through early discussions with your chosen EMS partner.

With the benefit of strong supplier relationships, deeper visibility of component availability over a product’s lifecycle can be gained and, with stronger buying power, availability and price stability can be ensured.

It’s because the frontloading of manufacture and supply chain concerns are so critical to the success and profitability of your designs that we launched our dedicated design centre.

The centre provides an injection of skilled, engineering resources to ensure your designs can be efficiently optimised at the proposal stage.

We offer you the benefit of our 30 multi-disciplined engineers to positively enhance your product development process. There’s a collaborative NPI Ideas Area for you at our Crawley headquarters, where NPIs can be discussed with our manufacturing experts at concept, design and later stages.

We also have an NPI Development Workspace which allows emerging designs to be assembled outside of the normal production environment. This is ideal for processes to be trialled and working models to be constructed, even if it is a start-stop nature. Customer engineering teams are welcome to come along and test alternative options, as they evolve.

All NPI activities are underpinned by our formalised and sophisticated NPI Gate Review Process. This provides flexibility to respond to design fluidity and change, as well as structure and discipline to ensure projects are kept on track and on budget- critical for eventual deliverability.

We’re with you from early engagement in design to creating a design package and getting the NPI ready for manufacture. We’re also available to offer rapid prototyping, testing and lifecycle support.

When you frontload the manufacturing process with us, we’ll help you greatly reduce the risks.

Drawing blanks: our guide sourcing PCB blank boards

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printed-circult-board-1080x675

They say that from small acorns mighty oak trees grow.

In electronics it’s on blank PCB boards that the grandest of designs are etched – and components mounted – to create the mightiest of devices.

In this review, we’re going to talk you through the options you have when you source blank boards for your electronic PCB assembly.

Taking each option in turn, we’ll explore the different supply routes available to you and the benefits that each offers at each stage of production.

Of the factors affecting your choice you will need to consider:

  • Time
  • Cost
  • Quality
  • Availability
  • Regulatory requirements for finished product
  • Performance requirements for finished product
  • Reliability and reputation of supplier

Of course, a very real benefit of working closely with an EMS partner is to take advantage of their expertise in managing the supply chain to meet your requirements and goals. At Chemigraphic our thorough and proactive approach to sourcing ensures you can overcome supply chain challenges and realise your great oaks every time.

Blank board demand

Demand for PCBs – and the blank boards on which they are created – continues to grow.

The world market for PCBs first exceeded the $60 billion mark back in 2014. It is estimated to be touching close to the $80 billion mark by 2024, thanks to a CAGR of 3.1%.

With demand sailing this high, you’d expect some competitive drops in prices for the blank boards – but price is very much dependant on the volumes you are ordering in and the timelines you are working to.

We’ll review later how it can be subject to other factors too.

How to source your supply of PCB blank boards

The three main routes for sourcing blank PCB boards are:

  • Quick turnaround routes
  • Third-party broker routes
  • Direct from overseas manufacturer routes

Let’s take a look at the pros and cons of each of these.

The quick turnaround route

This is usually best-suited to the speed and low volumes demanded during the rapid prototyping <link> of products in the pre-manufacture stage.

Typically, small volumes are required for this, but they are needed very quickly. The need for speed here has tended to mean that UK or European suppliers are used to expedite the orders. But times are changing: as closer relationships are developed with overseas suppliers – particularly based in Special Economic Zones in China – then these are being increasingly used as a quick turnaround option. Delivery times are rapidly dropping and cost savings on even small quantities of blank boards from Asia can be significant.

It is time, and not cost, that remains the main driving force for using quick turnaround suppliers. Ideal for rapid prototyping and proof of concept, they are also be used for unexpected or top-up orders should insufficient stock be held in reserve.

The main drawback of such orders is related to their instant availability. They tend to offer limited technical capabilities (because they are produced so quickly) and come at a higher unit cost (because they are produced in such small quantities).

This makes them unsuitable for more complex or larger volume projects.

The third-party broker route

Using a broker or agent in an offshore location can quickly open out a base of contacts and established relationships with manufacturers and suppliers in that region.

This is an option that tends to be used when first using blank boards from an area or when looking to create an expanded list of trusted suppliers within it.

The obvious benefit offered is that it minimises risk when using a new supply source – the relationship is guaranteed, and the responsibility owned, by the broker.

Brokers can also be useful should a regular supplier’s prices unexpectedly rise or if there are supply shortages from this established source.

As the broker is ordering regularly with suppliers for a large number of customers, there is also the benefit of the reduced costs that their consolidated spend brings.

For medium-volume orders this can represent a very reliable and cost-effective route as it delivers considerable cost-savings without the additional requirements – and hidden costs – involved in managing the entire process directly.

It should be noted, however, that a typical broker fee for acting as the ‘middle-man’ is usually around 20%, and that the additional links created in the supply chain can cause delays and create complexities.

The direct route

Accessing offshore, low-cost suppliers directly is possible thanks to the range of contacts your EMS partner brings to the table.

By sourcing offshore directly a lower price can be achieved. It is critical, however, that you understand the dynamics of the supply chain involved and have developed established relationships with trusted suppliers in these offshore locations.

With no broker involved there is an instant saving of around 20% to be realised and, additionally, you gain direct control over the source and the process. With less links involved it is often easier to reach decisions and resolve any issues much quicker.

This option is best suited to those high-volume projects where engineers’ time and extra work is required as it is only then that the additional work involved in using the direct route can be justified.

The additional work here includes:

  • Managing and owning every detail of the process
  • Co-ordinating delivery and logistics
  • Understanding the conditions that affect the capabilities of the local market
  • Establishing relationships with each supplier used
The blank board through the crystal ball

Blank boards – like any other component or material – used in electronic manufacture can be highly responsive to events throughout the global economy.

In recent times we are witnessing the uncertain effects of Brexit threaten our ability to 100% rely on a stable, continued European supply at a consistent price.

Elsewhere, the effects of Donald Trump’s trade war and war of words with China may have unforeseen circumstances – and China is a critical part of our supply chain.

Our CEO, Chris Wootton outlines some more thoughts on this in a recent EPDT article, where he comments:

‘As an EMS, the benefits that China offers in terms of manufacturing and sourcing electronic components are simply too extensive to ignore.

We opened our new sourcing office in Shenzhen in January, and already, our customers are benefiting from the higher volumes and lower costs of component parts thanks to the improved access to China’s pricing structures we can now offer.’

In terms of future trends it should be noted that:

  • The Chinese government has steadily increased the level of minimum wage since 2007 – and this rise has been most marked in areas where most electronic parts and supplies are manufactured (such as Shenzhen and Shanghai).
  • India, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam are increasingly competing for larger orders – but what they save in labour costs is still at present off-set by higher material costs for smaller orders.
  • The rise in cost of copper foil will push prices up regardless of where blank boards are sourced. This is a result of limited global copper foil productivity being hit by increasing demand from the production of electrical vehicles (which use this in their lithium batteries).

As ever, OEMs with a trusted EMS partner can achieve the flexibility to successfully navigate the changes, breaks and risks inherent in any global supply chain.

And together we will ensure we grow mighty oaks from the small acorns on our BOM.