Posted: May 14, 2022 by: NJ
The main factors that affect the cost of your PCB Assembly.
PCB Manufacturing CostThe price of most boards is largely determined by the number of layers, size, material, complexity and delivery.
Layers——Usually the same area, the more PCB layers, the more expensive the price.
Size———For a given number of layers, the smaller the PCB size, the lower the price.
Material——The processing of different materials varies greatly. Premium plates (M4, M6, etc.) cost more than ordinary FR4.
Complexity——The more blind via, buried via and buried blind via designs, the higher the cost.
The smaller the line width and line distance of the board, the higher the requirement of the manufacturing process capacity of the factory, and the higher the production cost.
Delivery——No matter which PCB manufacturer produces the circuit board, there is a normal lead time. The shorter the delivery time, the higher the price. Sometimes expedited charges are even more expensive than circuit boards.
For general PCB Assembly, no matter in the prototype or mass production stage, PCB cost accounts for a small proportion of PCB Assembly cost.
The prices of PCBs are also getting cheaper, especially in Asia, where logistics costs are sometimes the main factor affecting PCB prices. And often in the proofing stage, PCB logistics cost has become the biggest impact on the total cost of PCB.
BOM Sourcing Cost.
BOM Sourcing Cost includes component procurement Costs and Management costs. The price of components must depend on the type and quantity of components. Before the epidemic, the supply of components was relatively stable, and component prices are relatively transparent and stable. After 2020, and especially in 2021, the world faces shortages of chips and components. The prices of many components are rising every day, even doubling the price the next day. Many PCBA projects need to spend several times the original cost to complete the procurement of components in both proofing and mass production stages. And the component management cost is the part that people tend to ignore. In a PCBA project, the management of components is also very critical, which directly affects the efficiency of the whole project. Poor component management can lead to long lead times. There is no doubt that time is money, especially Prototyping.Surface Mount (SMT) Assembly Cost
The price of SMT mainly depends on the number of solder joints and the difficulty of processing.For the same board, different SMT plants will have different processing costs, mainly due to their equipment and technology differences. Processing quality is proportional to cost. Still, SMT's cost for the same vendor is relatively stable and transparent, and SMT's technology determines that the higher the production volume, the lower the cost. Therefore, SMT costs can be very high in small-batch and proofing PCBA projects, especially in the proofing stage, SMT costs may account for the majority of the total cost. Because in the small-batch production and proofing stage often need to charge steel mesh and boot fee. And these engineering costs are basically fixed, it will not be reduced because of the low production volume.
How to calculate PCB Assembly cost quickly？
In the past, the price calculation of PCB Assembly was complicated and troublesome. You have to get quotes from the component supplier, PCB manufacturer and SMT company separately. With the emergence of One-Stop EMS companies, you could just email them the Geber, BOM, and pick&place file and get a quote for the entire PCB Assembly in a matter of days.
Nowadays, some PCB Assembly companies can do online pricing, which greatly facilitates users, especially R&D personnel. Unfortunately, most of them can only achieve accurate real-time pricing of PCB and SMT, and only a few can calculate the price of BOM online, and they usually have strict requirements on the format of BOM, the compatibility is very low, resulting in a poor user experience. And they are expensive anyway because they have to set a high-profit ratio to cover up the inaccuracy of the pricing system. But the BOM pricing platform established by AiPCBA with the help of big data can calculate the BOM price instantly and accurately online, which solves the pain point of BOM quotation in the industry. Users can quickly get PCB Assembly prices on our website. Both for purchasers and research and development personnel is practical tool. It is a useful tool for both buyers and developers because they can quickly estimate the cost of their projects.
Why is AiPCBA's one-stop PCB Assembly service cheaper?
As mentioned above, the main cost of PCBA is composed of PCB cost, BOM cost and SMT cost. Then we will analyze AiPCBA from these three aspects for you how to achieve low-cost PCBA service.
Low-cost PCB supply chain
First of all, material cost is the determining factor of PCB price. It is well known that PCB boards in China are cheap, and AiPBCB's PCB factory is located in Shenzhen, China. We can purchase BOM materials for PCB production: board, PP, ink, copper foil, tin ball, gold salt and so on at a low price. Secondly, labour costs now account for an increasing proportion of PCB manufacturing costs. Compared with Europe and America, we have cheaper labour costs. Finally, our PCB factory and SMT company are both located in Shenzhen, which can well control the transportation cost of our PCB board. This greatly reduces the shipping cost of PCB for small batch and prototype projects.
Ai BOM Sourcing.
As mentioned above, our BOM online pricing platform is built with big data, which can analyze and match the best procurement source for each component. Combined with many reliable suppliers of components, we will guarantee to provide users with the best price BOM service from proofing to mass production. And our self-built intelligent electronic component warehouse provides strong support for our efficient BOM management. Efficient BOM management avoids component supply chain errors and reduces rework rates for PCB Assembly projects. And unlike most of our peers, our component supply chain is open and we accept third parties or customers to provide some components themselves. The cost of BOM Sourcing is further reduced by combining our component Sourcing channel advantages with those of our customers. Therefore, AiPCBA can provide BOM service at a better price for users while ensuring quality and efficiency.
Most SMT plants have their different positioning, either focusing on proofing and small batches or focusing on mass production. Some large SMT factories even do not accept proofing and small-batch orders, or proofing charges are very high. However, many small SMT factories specializing in PCBA proofing cannot undertake mass production. Therefore, customers need to choose SMT factories again in the process of proofing and mass production. The replacement of the factory will inevitably lead to an increase in cost, both in terms of time and economy. But AiPCBA has set up different SMT Assembly lines according to proofing, small-batch and batch production to meet customers' needs from proofing to mass production to the greatest extent. Seamless connection from proofing to mass production greatly reduces engineering costs. AiPCBA's High Flexibility SMT Assembly Line provides a comprehensive guarantee for customers' PCBA projects from sample to mass production with cheaper SMT services.