FAQ’s

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Have questions about our PCB assembly and manufacturing services?

We've gathered the most common questions here to help you understand our capabilities, processes, and standards. From lead times to technical specifics, our FAQs cover everything you need to know to get started with First Choice Assembly.

If you don’t see your question answered here, feel free to reach out, and our team will be happy to assist.

  • All we need is a bill of materials (BOM) detailing the components to be fitted to the printed circuit board with either manufacturers parts numbers or  Farnell / RS order codes. In addition to this we would need details of approximate order volumes. If we are to supply the bare PCB we would need the Gerber file for it.

  • In order for us to quote on the supply of a bare printed circuit board we would need the volume you require and the Gerber file for the PCB. At this stage you would need to inform us of any specific requirements on the panelisation of the PCB or material thickness/ type or colour. If the exact requirement is not given we assume we use FR4 with 1oz copper with green resist.

  • First Choice Assembly are happy to use customer supplied components (free issue). On receipt in our goods inwards area everything is segregated and placed in its own location within our factory.

  • Thirty days from the date of the quote. Due to exchange rate and component price fluctuations we cannot hold the price any longer than this.

  • Tooling is an initial one off charge to cover two things. When a bare PCB is first put into production film work has to be made in order to produce the PCB. The cost of this is circa £70.00 to £200.00 depending on PCB type. If the PCB is a complex double sided PCB with fine tracks or a multilayer printed circuit board then we suggest bare board testing (BBT) to test for circuit continuity. This charge does vary depending on circuit/test complexity.

    A charge will also be made for a frameless solder stencil circa £150.00 if the PCB is surface mount. This is to enable solder paste to be screen printed onto the PCB to allow for assembly of the component onto it. The solder stencil is produced from the Gerber data used to make the bare PCB. Solder stencil can be made with 72 hours.  Note double sided PCB's require 2 Stencils.

    These charges are only an indication and can vary depending on order value and can be free in some instances.

  • We have 10 of the latest Yamaha on the fly laser centred placement equipment with up 22,000 components per hour capacity per machine and up to 360 off different component types are able to be assembled on the machines at any one time. This means we can supply due to the ease of setup any volume of assembled PCB from 10 up to many hundreds of thousands.

    We do not have a set up charge for low volume batches.

    For a more detailed view of our machines capacity and specifications please have a look at the attached surface mount section of this web site.

  • If all the parts are available normal PCB assembly can be supplied within 4-5 weeks. This can be improved upon depending upon volume.

  • Prototype batches can be supplied within 10 days at no extra cost. In volume using off shore supply this typically takes around 3-4 weeks with a new PCB and around 2-3 weeks on a repeat order of PCBs.

Helping our partners to produce cost effective quality products.

Experience, reliability and quality.

At First Choice Assembly we specialise in the manufacture and assembly of printed circuit boards for a wide range of applications. We manufacture surface mounted printed circuit boards, conventional or hybrid PCBs, all made to our partners specification.

Here at First Choice Assembly we have 30 years experience of PCB assembly and manufacturing and within this time we have dealt with and supplied printed circuit boards to a large number of industry sectors.

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