Post by thread:Re: [EE]: small production run PCB assembly blues

Hi PICsters (and closet AVRsters) My company is produces a couple of products which require small surface mount boards which have proven unattractive to assemble. The problems are that the boards have a low parts count and are low volume. By low volume, I mean 2.5k boards/run, one run only expected this year. We have been dealing with a company out of Hong Kong, but have had *very* unreliable delivery. I have shopped locally, and with the exception of very small companies which are hand assembling, no one is interested, or the costs are astronomical. I've been getting the boards we urgently need hand assembled locally to meet our commitments while our production order has gone from days to many weeks late. This saves face, but is much too expensive! Anyone have any suggestions for a reliable and economical assembly company for small volumes. I'd prefer in North America, but I suspect economics will drive us back to the east. Thanks, Lyle ___________________________________________ Lyle Killough spam_OUTlyleTakeThisOuTsuregripcontrols.com ____________________________________________ Sure Grip Controls Inc. 4 - 1413 McGill Road Kamloops, BC, V2C 6K7 Canada phone 250-374-2278 fax 250-374-1099 ____________________________________________ http://www.suregripcontrols.com ____________________________________________ -- http://www.piclist.com hint: The PICList is archived three different ways. See http://www.piclist.com/#archives for details.

Not sure what cost etc there is - I interviewed for this place 3 years ago but ended up getting firm job offer elsewhere at the same time. I did see SMD rework and placement tooling in the shop there. http://www.tabtronx.com in Dayton, Ohio >>> .....lyleKILLspam@spam@SUREGRIPCONTROLS.COM 05/14/02 12:05PM >>> <snip> Anyone have any suggestions for a reliable and economical assembly company for small volumes. I'd prefer in North America, but I suspect economics will drive us back to the east. Thanks, Lyle -- http://www.piclist.com hint: The PICList is archived three different ways. See http://www.piclist.com/#archives for details.

> Anyone have any suggestions for a reliable and economical assembly > company for small volumes. I'd prefer in North America, but I suspect > economics will drive us back to the east. > > Thanks, Lyle > I believe Olimex does this sort of thing (http://www.olimex.com). I've never used that service, but I found their PCB prototyping to be excellent... -- ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Tim Daneliuk tundraKILLspamtundraware.com -- http://www.piclist.com hint: The PICList is archived three different ways. See http://www.piclist.com/#archives for details.

There is a small electronic assembly plant in Elbow Saskatchewan that I tried for the first time last week. They populated 5, 3.000 x 4.000, double-sided surface mount boards for us. Upon inspection I noticed that the one side of a couple of resistors did not get soldered; however, overall the work was very good. They are excellent to deal with and their price was 1/2 what we are used to paying in town, with delivery in 1 week by Purolator. They were recommended to me by a PCB designer and I'm happy to pass along the recommendation. If you decide to call them for a quote, here's the contact information Commutron Industries 99, 302 Stanley Street Elbow, Saskatchewan Phone: (306) 854-2265 Fax: (306) 854-2264 Shawn Extreme Engineering -- http://www.piclist.com#nomail Going offline? Don't AutoReply us! email .....listservKILLspam.....mitvma.mit.edu with SET PICList DIGEST in the body