Published on August 30th, 2018
A customer or a buyer who is relatively new to the printed circuit board industry is bound to get confused while deciding as to how a particular PCB project will be prized by the manufacturer.
Determining this cost is essential for the customer or a buyer to plan their PCB projects in an ideal and a better fashion.
The price set up for manufacturing a PCB consists of many different components and each component has an individual role in determining the price of the final product.
A customer or a buyer must have a proper understanding of these elements in order to accurately determine the cost of their PCB project and plans.
Good news is that now the availability of PCB components and management of PCB production cost can be done in the design phase only with the aid and assistance of ActiveBOM.
ActiveBOM is one of Altium Designer’s key features that can help define target pricing at the component level as well as can be used to track actual costs against the estimated costs.
Combining ActiveBOM with the below-mentioned factors can help a PCB project lead to better estimate the entire cost of the project.
1. Size of the Panel
Even a non-technical person will know that the very basic raw material which is required for the construction of the printed circuit board is the panel.
Hence, it is understandable that the size of the panel will play an important role in determining the final cost of the PCB project. So, bigger and longer the panel is being utilized to manufacture the PCB; more will be the cost of the project.
2. The quantity of PCB Ordered
Of course, the quantity of PCB ordered by the customer plays an essential role in determining the cost of the total project.
Some customers will order only 10 or 20 pieces and hence, the overall cost will be much lower than the project which demands about 500-1000 printed circuit boards.
Also, another thing which is required to be taken into account here is that high quantity orders can get attractive discounts too by the manufacturer.
Also, if an order is of 1000 PCBs the manufacturer and the customer can enter into an agreement to supply only 200 PCBs in a month.
This way the manufacturer gets the advantage in terms of efficiency as it produces all the 1000 PCBs in a month while the customer, on the other hand, will achieve efficiency in the outflow of cash as he/she is supposed to pay only for 200 PCBs in a month and the entire order will take 5 months to complete.
3. Time of Delivery
Delivery time, also known as Lead Time, means the time present in the hands of the manufacturer to produce the order and deliver it to the customer.
Here, it is quite understandable that quicker the customer wants the order; more cost will be levied by the manufacturer.
This is because the manufacturer has to put the order with less lead time on high priority as compared to other orders.
4. Layers Involved
If the project consists of a single-sided or a double-sided printed circuit board; the final cost will come out to be more or less the same.
The tricky part comes with multi-layered printed circuit boards where the manufacturer has to purchase extra raw materials and even the manufacturing process for the same is pretty complicated.
Hence, with multi-layered PCBs, the manufacturing cost will, definitely, shoot up.
5. Number of Holes to Be Drilled
Here, along with the number of holes to be drilled, even the size of the holes should be considered. Smaller the size of the hole it will take more efforts and precision on the part of the manufacturer to drill the same.
Hence, the cost will eventually go up. The number of holes to be drilled also play an important role here as greater the number of holes to be drilled, more time it will take on a single panel.
6. Traces or Spaces
Almost, all the PCB projects which are being taken upon nowadays require smaller components to be established on less space. Hence for a PCB design, if traces/spaces are smaller; the final cost of the PCB project will, indeed, shoot up.
Conclusion
Apart from these primary factors; there are various secondary factors as well which must be considered when determining the cost of the PCB project.
Hence, as a customer or a buyer, you require diving deep into the pricing factors to more accurately and precisely determine the final cost and preparing the price quotation.
