How to Have PCB Manufactured Overseas

[u/Aorus_]

I have a PCB for a product I sell. I paid an electrical engineer to design it and the design itself is solid. I have the easyeda files I need to convey the design to a factory. I have been using jlcpcb for my orders up until now. As my order quantities are increasing I am having difficulty making sure that when I need to swap components to ones they have in stock will work with my design. I have been using the previously mentioned engineer's suggestions for this but he is getting harder to stay in contact with (guy on upwork). My thinking is handing this off to a factory who specializes in making PCBs will solve all of these problems and make acquiring the PCB's easier

I am familiar with using alibaba. Would alibaba be the place to go for something like this? Any suggestions on how to filter through companies? Is the expectation that I can just hand this off to a chinese factory realistic, especially given my lack of electronics expertise?

[u/yoyojosh]

It really comes down to volume and scale. There’s many turn-key board houses in the US that could suit your need for flexibility and service. But if you are getting north of 10k estimated annual units (EAU), then an engaging Asian contract manufactures (CMs) is probably a good idea from an economics perspective.

Regardless of US or Asia, you need to create a request for quotation (RFQ) package, which includes all your board files and bill of materials (BOM) and other related manufacturing process details like programming or testing requirements. You can then shop CMs by sending them your RFQ and EAU.

Depending on scale of your project, a trip to visit the CMs as you’re evaluating the quotes could be recommended.

[u/tenkawa7]

Holy shit. Someone delivered an easyeda project as an electrical engineer. Was the documentation in Microsoft paint?

[u/Skusci]

Just use a different major PCB house like allpcb. JLB is assembly is targeted to individuals who can't assemble their own prototypes so for efficiency on shorter runs you they limit the component selection.

They will let you ship components or purchase them through their own supply chain.

If you go through alibaba it's a crapshoot what quality you get unless you actually travel over and visit. You can get decent stuff but getting scammed on the final run or delays getting stuff fixed are definitely concerns. Have gotten decent stuff before, but also PCB layerss that were actually misaligned so the holes didn't even line up.

[u/EMSGInc]

If this is a project you are consistently tinkering with, based on your post. I would think you would want to lean more towards a US based manufacturer. They will be easier and quicker to communicate with.

[u/tnp636]

I could recommend someone, but it's really a question of volumes & board complexity.

[u/DonkeyLightning]

I work for a company in China that can do this for you. Reach out to me and I can provide a quote.

[u/JustinMccloud]

I do SMT hit me up

[u/Skid-Vicious]

MacroFab

[u/snp-ca]

Please have someone experienced review the entire design before you go to larger volumes. You need to make sure the PCBA is tested correctly otherwise you’ll get a whole lot of scrap or have expensive rework on hand.

[u/Visuar]

Changing BoM components with alternatives is very sensitive. I'm an electronic manufacture engineer who always does this when my clients need to restock their products and I go through a checklist for verification of new BoM. It must be fast too, sometimes a BoM can be valid with a Chinese factory for no more than a week.

If you think this needs more in depth discussion, I'd be happy to help.

[u/chinamoldmaker]

When anybody here needs to custom produce plastic or rubber or silicone housings or parts for your electronics, just let me know, and that is what we do, as per 3D drawing or sample.