More and more customers are ordering not only their PCBs from us, but also assembled boards. Ordering prototypes from a single source has decisive advantages:
- It saves time because you only have to place one order to one service provider.
- You receive your prototypes or small series from a single source on the agreed date.
- With Eurocircuits you know that your data is complete and ready for production before you place your order with our online and free to use Visualizer tool after which we manufacture your boards and assemble them inhouse.
In addition to the normal data needed to manufacture your PCB we require these data files:
- The BOM data (Bill of Material).
- The CPL data (Components Placement List).
The BOM is usually an Excel file. It contains information on the components such as the manufacturer’s part number (MPN), the corresponding reference designation (e.g. C1, C2, R1, R2, IC1, etc.), a description of the component and the package type. The goal is to have an unambiguous definition of the parts to be used.
The CPL defines the X Y position of each component on the PCB, the rotation and which side of the PCB it is on (Top or Bottom) i.e. which component should be soldered to which position.
You can upload these files with your bare board data or later using our online Visualizer.
In the video links below we show how this works and for further information please see our step by step instructions in our user guides.
After you upload the data we perform an automatic check and highlight any data issue found.
At Eurocircuits we continually develop solutions to help and support our customers.
Within our Visualizer Toolbox you will find our BOM Editor and our CPL Editor, these have been developed to allow you to verify and correct your data before you place your order.
How to use these tools and the benefit they offer will be shown in a later newsletter.
