Leading Manufacturer Updates Equipment to Ensure Printed Circuit Board Quality and Turntime
 
Advanced Circuits, a leader in quick-turn printed circuit board manufacturing, has invested more than $1 million in new equipment, confirming its commitment to consistently provide quality products on time to customers.

“Although we already lead the industry in turn time and product quality, we are constantly improving our processes to give customers PCBs that are on time or early every time,” said Dan Chouinard, Vice President of Plant Operations for Advanced Circuits. “Investing in new equipment allows us to not only produce superior boards, but also consistently ship them ahead of schedule. An extra day or two means a lot to our customers who are responsible for meeting tight deadlines and juggling numerous projects.”

The new equipment purchases include:

Strip-Etch-Strip (SES) Line. This automated line provides extremely accurate and consistent fine-line etching.

Debur equipment. Advanced Circuits’ new Debur equipment offers thorough cleaning for small holes, supporting the capability for tighter more compact designs.

Lead Free Hot Air Solder Level (HASL) Unit. This purchase is in preparation for the pending 2006 lead free requirements. The new HASL unit will be used to manufacture lead-free products and also add redundancy to current production processes.

Hot Air Solder Leveling Pre-Clean and Post-Clean Lines. These new and improved lines will reduce the cycle time required to produce a board, while at the same time providing greater consistency in the final product.

Handling equipment. This new equipment for the HASL and SES lines further automates the manufacturing process, allowing a single employee to manage the process.

“We are fortunate our continued company success allows us to purchase the latest technology needed to provide outstanding customer value and satisfaction, “ said John Yacoub, President of Advanced Circuits. “By automating more processes we are further reducing the chance for errors and providing an opportunity to cross-train our employees so that their expertise and skills can be used in multiple areas.”

The installation and implementation of the new equipment begins this month and with an end of year completion date. 

For more information, visit http://www.4pcb.com., or call us at 800-979-4PCB.

Advanced Circuits, the country’s leading source for quick-turn printed circuit boards, today announced that all prototypes will now be fabricated using lead- free solder as a plating finish. The lead- free HAL finish provides an enhanced solderable finish for assembly and meets all legislation requirements for the European Union’s RoHS Directive six months ahead of the July deadline. “Advanced Circuits is one of a limited number of PCB manufacturers in the USA offering a complete lead- free solder alternative,” said Tony Garramone, corporate training manager at Advanced Circuits. “We strive to stay ahead of the curve and provide our customers with the most current technology. Any printed circuit board that we produce whether prototype or production is free of mercury, cadmium, hexavalent chromium, polybrominated biphenyls or polybrominated diphenyl ethers.”

Benefits of Advanced Circuits lead- free solder:
· A lead- free finish at no additional cost to leaded solder
· Processing at or near temperatures used for leaded solder application
· Flatter pad surfaces than leaded solder
· Compatibility with lead- free solder alloys and leaded solder used in assembly Advanced Circuits’ lead- free boards are produced using a lead- free alloy of 99.3 percent tin and 0.6 percent copper with a trace of nickel (SN100CL). This solder offers an excellent alternative to more expensive lead- free finishes.

Advanced Circuits is also stocking a variety of higher temperature laminates for use in conjunction with the lead- free solder finishes, which are designed to withstand processing temperatures between 260° and 288° C, depending on the laminate system the designer chooses.

For more information, visit:  Advanced Circuits PCB Website

Prototype Printed Circuit Boards vs PCB Production

Deciding whether you need to order your printed circuit board as a prototype or as a production board is simply a matter of looking at the specs. Prototypes or “protos” are built within the guidelines of our established spec parameters. Production orders are built with strict adherence to your fabrication specifications.

Printed Circuit Board Quantity doesn’t matter. Advanced Circuits will make as few as one pcb as either a proto or production order. No order is too small for us!

PCB Quality is the same. All prototypes and production orders go through the same rigourous fabrication and quality check process.

Turnaround time is the same. We can produce your production order just as quickly as our prototypes, even creating them in one day if needed.

Order Proto if you require:

Gold Fingers

All holes plated through for all hole sizes in the drill program

Non-plated slots

Green soldermask

White legend (silkscreen)

1 oz. Cu. inner layers/Up to 2 oz. Cu. wt. on outer layers

Overall thickness .031", .062", .093", or .125"

Class II Inspection

Order Production if you require:

Non-plated holes

Plated slots/edges

Soldermask color other than green

Legend color other than white

UL Markings

Controlled Dielectric/Impedance

Inner layer Cu. wt. greater than 1 oz.

Blind/buried Vias

Countersinks/counterbores

Gold plating finish (total board)

"We never charge tooling on proto orders. In addition, when you re-order your proto and go to production, we waive the tooling charge again!"

For more information:  http://www.4pcb.com