Epec's Blog | Electronics Manufacturing Solutions

At the conclusion of our webinar, Adding Keypads and Cables to Your Injection-Molded Enclosure, we had several questions submitted to our presenter, Steven J. Goodman, User Interface & Cable Assembly Product Manager at Epec. We have compiled these questions into a readable format on our blog.

In today's fast-paced engineering world, efficiency and productivity are key factors in meeting project deadlines and maintaining a competitive edge. One practice that has gained popularity among engineers is buying kitted wire harnesses. By bundling together pre-assembled wire harnesses, kitting offers a range of advantages that can simplify the wiring process.

When deciding on which battery packs to purchase for applications, one of the factors that customers look at is the manufacturing cost. On average, prices for lithium batteries ranged from about $132 per kWh in 2021 as electric vehicle battery packs in 2022 averaged at $153 per kWh. While these prices are lower than back in 2008 ($1,355 kWh), lithium batteries have continually been the most expensive of battery chemistries.

Getting your product to market fast and staying within budget is the obvious goal for all new development projects. Many of these projects require some sort of assembled circuit board, battery, or touchscreen, and therefore they all will need some type of custom electrical cable or wire harness.

In terms of electronics, everyone agrees that having to deal with component obsolescence is taxing on resources and costs companies’ enormous amounts of time and money. The task of finding replacement options for an obsolete component is not an easy one and is usually spearheaded by engineering and purchasing departments.

D-subminiature connectors, commonly referred to as D-subs, are a class of interconnects that are widely used in the electronics industry for both commercial and industrial applications. The name "D-sub" comes from the shape of the connector shell which looks similar to the letter "D” when viewed from the front face.

Determining the manufacturing process of your design is a key decision that should be addressed at the start of the design stage. The impact of how your design is manufactured will either limit or open up new options for how your idea can be explored.

If you had to make a list of all the fields that rely on modern technological advancements to function on a daily basis, healthcare and the medical industry would be right at the top.

More often than not, a quote will be requested without enough information to price, never mind to manufacture. In 1957, IPC was founded as the Institute for Printed Circuits by Richard Zens (Printed Electronics Corp/Epec), Al Hughes (Electralab), Robert Swiggett (Photocircuits), William McGinley (Methode), and Carl Clayton (Tingstol).

Hazardous environments consist of work areas that may experience elevated levels of corrosion, extreme temperature variations, high pressure, flammable substances, or explosive conditions. Devices operating on battery power need special design requirements to prevent the battery pack from becoming damaged due to these hazardous materials.