If you are planning to design a product and also need help to manufacture a printed circuit board (PCB) prototype, it is possible to produce the prototype on your own or even outsource it to a company who focuses primarily on PCB prototype assembly. However manufacturing a PCB prototype yourself requires an in-house PCB manufacturing and appropriate facility, which would definitely not be budget friendly if you just need it for PCB prototypes, which are only in small productions. It would be better to subcontract with a company who focuses primarily on producing prototype PCBs.
It is usually more cost-effective to produce a big amount of PCBs than a small quantity. However, prototypes of PCBs are typically produced in small amounts since the circuit layout is still being processed. A company that focuses primarily on PCB assembly knows the right way to keep your costs low as it has the ability of lowering the costs of assembly and distributing the manufacturing cost by putting on the manufacturing job between various clients so that they can maintain the overall cost for producing small quantity .
Choose a company that offer an online quote system as it can help you save time. The online quote must be user friendly. The system must enable you to enter the salient information of the PCB’s design specifications such as thickness, material and also manufacturing technical specs. The end result of the online quote can be the cost control for your PCB prototype production.
The file formats you will use for your electronic circuit layouts are important when choosing a PCB assembly service. The majority of manufacturers use the Gerber format. But if you use other file formats, make sure the manufacturer can work with such types of file format you want. This is the reason why hiring a PCB assembly service that also provide design services is the great choice mainly because the company comes with the technical expertise and in-house competencies to handle any issues that may appear in the pre-assembly process .