thermionic
Well-known member
- Joined
- Jun 3, 2004
- Messages
- 1,671
Hi,
Recently, I've seen highly specialist items that I know will be sold in low volume, assembled entirely in an SMT format. How are they doing this if they are only likely to sell a handful of assembled PCBs a year? I would've thought it'd be far more prudent to make such items via hand-soldering? Arethey hand-soldering the parts? Some of the items I've seen have hundreds of parts, and SMT by hand would take far more time than TH parts.
Because TH components are getting phased out in some ranges, are some of these specialist items being forced into an SMT format because that's the only way to get certain ICs etc now?
At what point did you go to SMT with your widget? Did you apply a rule of thumb?
How do companies make SMT prototypes that have hundreds of parts? Do they just poney-up for a one-off set up cost? Maybe they have their own P+P machines? Have you seen these at any small OEMs?
NB - I realise this is more of a mechanical / financial question than anything, but considering this is the Drawing Board, I'm going to presume that all aspects of design can be discussed here.
Recently, I've seen highly specialist items that I know will be sold in low volume, assembled entirely in an SMT format. How are they doing this if they are only likely to sell a handful of assembled PCBs a year? I would've thought it'd be far more prudent to make such items via hand-soldering? Arethey hand-soldering the parts? Some of the items I've seen have hundreds of parts, and SMT by hand would take far more time than TH parts.
Because TH components are getting phased out in some ranges, are some of these specialist items being forced into an SMT format because that's the only way to get certain ICs etc now?
At what point did you go to SMT with your widget? Did you apply a rule of thumb?
How do companies make SMT prototypes that have hundreds of parts? Do they just poney-up for a one-off set up cost? Maybe they have their own P+P machines? Have you seen these at any small OEMs?
NB - I realise this is more of a mechanical / financial question than anything, but considering this is the Drawing Board, I'm going to presume that all aspects of design can be discussed here.