Printed circuit boards, or PCBs, are an enormous part of modern electronics manufacturing. Everything from the computer you’re reading this on to the cell phone in your pocket functions thanks to one or more printed circuit boards. While the manufacture of these PCBs can be very lucrative, it can also be very competitive, leaving both start-ups and established companies fighting to find the perfect niche. What can PCB manufactures do to streamline their process and save both time and money?

Choose Quality Materials

This plan might seem like a way to lose money rather than saving it, but hear us out. If you choose cheap materials from the get-go, your PCBs aren’t going to last as long as some that are being produced using high-quality materials. You’ll save money in the beginning but end up losing it as products are returned or customers start making warranty claims when their products fail.

Investing in high-quality materials from the start allows you to save more money over time by enabling you to create a long-lasting product that will serve your customers well for months or years to come.

KISS: Keep It Simple, Sir

Some PCBs require custom shapes in order to fit into their cases, but unless you receive a special order for custom boards, producing standard sizes and shapes — square, rectangles and the like — is a good way to keep your product moving. Companies that are purchasing PCBs for a product aren’t usually looking for an oddly shaped board — they want something they can buy in bulk and install in their product with little to no need for customization. If you’re planning on keeping blank boards in stock, stick with basic shapes.

Choose the Right Tools

Sure, you can solder your connections with a cheap soldering iron from your local hardware store, but it won’t work as well as investing in a commercial soldering iron designed to handle that kind of load.

Just as you want to invest in high-quality materials to create your boards, you should also want to invest in high-quality tools and equipment to complete the work. This strategy is another thing that will cost more initially but save you money in the long run because the equipment will require less maintenance and less frequent replacement. Plus, it will save you money by preventing costly downtime that can occur when cheap or faulty equipment breaks down.

Take a Look at Your Process

The PCB manufacturing industry is constantly evolving. How long has it been since you took a look at your manufacturing process to see how it could be improved to help you keep up with changes in the industry? If it’s been more than a year, it’s time to take a look at it again.

There are four metrics that you can use to asses your process and see where it needs to be improved:

• Efficiency: How quickly are your orders completed?
• Quality: How well is each board constructed?
• Accuracy: How close is each board to the requested design?
• Consistency: How similar is each board to the one produced before and after it?

These four metrics can help you improve your process by making it easier to identify problems and giving you the tools to fix them. For some of the points, like consistency, there may be a bit more wiggle room if your boards are being assembled by hand instead of by machines, but that will depend on your particular process.

Change With the Times

As we’ve already stated, the PCB industry is constantly changing and evolving. Companies that don’t do the same will be left in the dust. One assistant professor at Iowa State University recently secured a patent for liquid metal particles that could be used for cold-soldering. Field’s Metal, which is made creating an alloy of tin, bismuth and indium, is melted into tiny droplets of liquid metal and then allowed to oxidize, keeping the molten metal liquid well below the temperature that it would normally harden at.

This process could have some amazing applications for creating PCBs for microelectronics, which can be damaged by the heat of a traditional soldering iron. While it isn’t ready for commercial applications just yet, savvy companies can be on the lookout for it to become an option for their production lines in the near future.

The world of printed circuit boards is constantly changing, and it’s up to each manufacturer to keep up with the changes to this industry in order to run a successful business. If you’re just starting out, remember that investing in high-quality construction materials and equipment might cost more in the beginning, but it will save you a lot of money and prevent costly downtime in the long run. And remember — keep it simple. Complicated boards are great and sell well if you’ve got a client that needs them, but without that client, you’ll just have a warehouse full of boards you can’t sell.