Computer science engineer here, been doing embedded development for almost 10 years now. Long story, short, planning to open a PCB assembly house to deal with the PCB assembly for our company. Our current volume is around 1000 boards / year, but it's expected to grow. Boards are relatively low complexity, around 100 components.

Anyway, I'm trying to find some resources where I can learn about the whole assembly process, so any books, courses, websites that could give me a bit more insight into the whole thing would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

 

hi Alex,
This link looks a good starting point.
Eric
https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=p...O8ge48LeIDw#q=pcb+assembly+process+flow+chart

 

Computer science engineer here, been doing embedded development for almost 10 years now. Long story, short, planning to open a PCB assembly house to deal with the PCB assembly for our company. Our current volume is around 1000 boards / year, but it's expected to grow. Boards are relatively low complexity, around 100 components.

Anyway, I'm trying to find some resources where I can learn about the whole assembly process, so any books, courses, websites that could give me a bit more insight into the whole thing would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

I don't understand how you could be in embedded development for ten years and not at least have a working understanding of PCB development or at least not know where to find rsources. If you are manufacturing boards at your company then why not ask there? Our company has a "job shadow" program where you temporarily work in another department of interest. While your company might not have a formal program, I would bet you could still do it if you expressed your interest to management.

 

Ok, I might have not explained things properly. I co-own a company and we develop and sell products which include assembled PCBs. The company is quite small, under 10 employees and we currently outsource the PCB assembly process. We want to start assembling the PCBs in-house, saving both money and time.

Given the above, you can probably guess that I can't just go to the company that we use now and ask them to teach me all of their secrets. Secondly, I have a decent idea about the process workflow, I'm more interested in the fine details: like which solder to choose, things to consider when buying the pick-n-place machine, temperatures and so on. I might be over-thinking things and it might prove to be quite straight-forward, especially as one of offers we have for a pick-n-place assembly line includes training as well.

Hope that clears things up and hopefully steer the discussion into a more constructive zone

Thanks!

 

I use the open source (Free) Kicad for schematic capture and board design and produce the necessary files needed for board production house.
Unless this part is already in place?
Max.

 

Ok, I might have not explained things properly. I co-own a company and we develop and sell products which include assembled PCBs. The company is quite small, under 10 employees and we currently outsource the PCB assembly process. We want to start assembling the PCBs in-house, saving both money and time.

Given the above, you can probably guess that I can't just go to the company that we use now and ask them to teach me all of their secrets. Secondly, I have a decent idea about the process workflow, I'm more interested in the fine details: like which solder to choose, things to consider when buying the pick-n-place machine, temperatures and so on. I might be over-thinking things and it might prove to be quite straight-forward, especially as one of offers we have for a pick-n-place assembly line includes training as well.

Hope that clears things up and hopefully steer the discussion into a more constructive zone

Thanks!

Do you really want to risk the future of your company on what you learn online? The alternative is to get formal training on the subject but that is going to take time. Your best alternative is to hire someone in house that has training and experience in this subject.

I certainly hope you have the numbers in front of you. It is hard to believe you will be able to do this cheaper in-house than you can to just send it out for such small numbers. Certainly there are advantages other than money to do it in-house, like quality that you control, quick turn around time and quick modification to boards that have started the manufacturing process. Even if you do save yourself a little, are you going to risk the future of your company with so little experience? Or just leave it to an expert that already satisfies your needs?

 

I use the open source (Free) Kicad for schematic capture and board design and produce the necessary files needed for board production house.
Unless this part is already in place?
Max.

TS wants to produce boards from design to manufacture in-house is the way I read it.