Epec's Blog | Electronics Manufacturing Solutions

At the conclusion of our webinar, PCB Manufacturing Facilities: Certifications, Compliance, and Security - we had several questions submitted to our presenter, Ed McMahon, CEO at Epec. We have compiled these questions into a readable format on our blog.

As the oldest production printed circuit board (PCB) company in North America, perhaps in the world, the 70+ year story of Epec Engineered Technologies is connected to the development of the PCB and the electronics industry. Epec’s storied history also includes delivering PCBs for the Apollo 11 spaceflight.

When it comes to faulty electronics, root-cause analysis is your best friend. Root-cause analysis is a process that helps you identify and correct the causes of problems. You want to find out why something went wrong so you can prevent it from happening again.

So, let’s talk about non-recurring charges, better known as NREs, that are applied to most new and new revision first-time orders for manufacturing of printed circuit boards (PCBs). These charges help aid in several crucial steps for manufacturing with a cost of processing, programming, testing, and manpower to deliver a quality product.

Here at Epec, we take cybersecurity extremely seriously, and it's essential to stay up to date on the latest safety measures. That means understanding how hackers and scammers operate so you can protect yourself from them. To do this, it helps to learn about topics like password security, malware protection, data encryption, and firewalls. Taking the time to research these topics now can save you lots of trouble down the road.

As a printed circuit board (PCB) manufacturer for more than 70 years, we have worked with thousands of customers to provide quality products in prototypes of a few pieces to many tens of thousands of circuit boards repetitively.

From a printed circuit board (PCB) manufacturing supplier’s point of view, often we are consulted about design and layout at the concept phase. Over the past many years, we have seen an increase in customers asking to assist with design, layout, and modifications to the circuit board. From this repeat request, we developed an engineering team to make it happen.

We hear this a lot when it comes to our user interface product solutions. The name, or names of these products, vary depending on who is talking. From membrane switches, silicone rubber keypads, keyboards, and touchscreens, these are all considered human-machine interfaces, aka HMI.

Around the world, battery pack manufacturers are dealing with supply chain issues. These issues are impacting lead times when they gain battery cell chemistry and battery management system materials.

When it comes to printed circuit boards (PCBs), the bare board is always where customers look to cut costs. Unfortunately, we often see this request after the design has been completed and we have the Gerber files in hand to quote the printed circuit board.