Epec's Blog | Electronics Manufacturing Solutions

Designers and manufacturers of silicone rubber keypads understand they are used for a wide range of industries and applications while needing to withstand heavy usage. Keypads are used extensively in both consumer and industrial electronic products as a low cost and reliable switching solution. In specific applications rubber keypads may be used ­in harsh outdoor environments that must withstand hundreds of actuations on a daily basis.

As a necessary component in countless applications, custom designed cable assemblies have a major impact on the cost, and therefore the profitability, of any project. Designing a cable assembly that meets both environmental and electrical demands, while keeping costs low, can be a challenging task.

This blog post is intended to reinforce the design support we offer at Epec for our flex and rigid-flex PCBs. Technical design and engineering is one of our core foundations which allow us to best help our customers meet their product requirements. Within the post, we'll cover design areas that require special consideration.

Cleanliness of bare circuit boards increases in importance with advances in PCB technology that continue to decrease conductor spacing. Inorganic contamination within printed circuit board fabrication can lead to electrochemical migration. Electrochemical migration is the dissolution and movement of metal ions in presence of electric potential, which results in the growth of dendritic structures between anode and cathode. These dendritic growths, which were minimal over periods of time, were not a concern of "yesterdays" bare boards.

As a leader in user interface technology, we frequently get asked the question, "What kind of user interface is the best option for my application?" User interface, or Human Machine Interface (HMI), assembly designs are dependent on the application, housing, and the environment they will be used in. Choosing the right option and material is a key component.

Online quoting tools that offer customers the ability to create their own printed circuit board quotes and place orders online has become quite common in the PCB industry today. InstantPCBQuote from Epec aims to do more than the competitors. Most quoting tools are designed for lower technology parts which don't need much more than the outside dimensions of the board to provide a fast quote.

Somewhere around the turn of the century, maybe in the last decade or so, there was a change in the job market. New requirements for employees coming into the job market, a higher standard. The days of getting high paying jobs based simply off prior work experience are behind us; that experience still means something, but not as much as it used to. So what are employers looking for then? A college degree.

At Epec, we take workforce training very seriously. We readily invest in workforce education because it is a time-tested, proven path to improving manufacturing process development and customer satisfaction. In our experience, the educated worker is not only productive, they are adaptable problem solvers focused on satisfying our customers' most demanding needs.

At Epec, we are in a unique position of having the capabilities to produce domestically at our Colorado tech center, our Massachusetts assembly facility, or your partner factories in Asia. This allows us both flexibility and control on prototype development, regulatory builds, pilot ruins, and production quantities.

The future of manufacturing in the U.S. is set up to be driven by volatile economic conditions, 3D printing, robotics, mobile technology, the Internet of Things, embedded devices, and other emerging technologies. Forecasting the future is always risky, but there are several factors converging right now that bring more clarity as we begin our journey into the second decade of the 21st century.