Project description:
At Elmgrove Technologies, we strive to save our clients’ money by using our extensive PCB design knowledge to reduce overall assembly and manufacturing costs. In this project, we worked with a manufacturer of liquid dispensing systems who had contracted us for a long term assembly project. Our operation is based in lean methodologies, with continuous improvement as a company culture, and not just with our own processes. We’ve helped dozens of customers glean the savings from our insight and experience in PCB assembly processes.
While assembling PCBs for this client, our staff quickly discovered that a redesign would save significant time and money, and greatly simplify manufacturing. We recommended converting laborious through-hole components to smaller and easier-to-install surface-mount devices, dramatically improving design for manufacturability (DFM).
Another cost savings measure that we implemented was the overall reduction in board size. The original was 11.5” x 6.5, which we shrank to 6.5” x 6.5” in length and width, with a thickness of 0.062”. We used a 170TG board with an ENIG surface finish that also featured 1 oz. of copper. By reducing the original through-hole operation, our manufacturing parameters allowed greater efficiency, using a combination of hand and automated TH and SMT processes. Units were then assembled to J-STD-001 standards and inspected according to IPC-A-610 Class II methods. The boards were also in full compliance with required UL94V-0 standards, and included the required stamp for verification. This full redesign was known as “Project PC0018C” and highlighted our ability to re-engineer, fabricate, and assemble PCB units from previous designs. Our customer is now realizing an annual savings of nearly 30% thanks to our conversion, and ordering 50 unit batches. To learn more about this project, please refer to the table below or contact us for more information.