Epec's Blog | Electronics Manufacturing Solutions

In this blog post you can view two videos that go into detail about the functionality of the human-machine interface (HMI) product sample and an overview of how capacitive touch membrane switches work. The transcription of both videos is also provided below. Take note that the transcriptions have been edited for better readability.

When it comes to manufacturing custom electronics, there are tons of companies out there that can do anything once. The true value of a manufacturing partner is a company that not only has the capability to manufacture your product fast to help you get to market quicker and cost effectively, but also consistently. Effectively accounting for Engineering Change Orders (ECOs) and product changes are factors that often get overlooked in manufacturers. Failing to find a supplier with stable speeds, costs, and a consistent process can cause major headaches down the line.

There are a lot of good things happening right now for many folks in the electronics manufacturing industry in the United States. The economy is going strong, unemployment rates are dropping, and there has been growth in the PCB industry over the past four months which hasn’t happened since May of 2016 according to the U.S. Purchasing Managers’ Index.

When you’re in the process of designing a new product, the last thing you are thinking about is the how the product is going to be packaged for transit. However, failure to prepare for and understand electronics packaging regarding how both your components and your finished unit are going to ship is a costly oversight.

Lowering risk for original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) in the Military and Aerospace industries is always a key objective. Utilizing a vendor consolidation approach is a viable way to reduce risk within an organization. Increasing the amount of products sourced with one qualified supplier can drive down the overall risk by allowing components and subsystems to be tested together prior to being delivered into your supply chain.

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.

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.

When we sat down in 2005 to develop our IT infrastructure plan for the company, I was unsure of why we spent so much time evaluating every investment in terms of what we would do in case of a disaster. Well this winter, I found out why that was so important.

Over the past several years, the label "hybrid supplier" has become more popular among industry leading product and service companies. The term means combining multiple business elements with a unique process to create a mixture suited to fulfill all of a customer's needs under one company. While this sounds like a very attractive business model for a customer to use, it is much harder than it sounds.