Thanks for watching! Sorry about the audio levels on this video. After rendering/upload to YT, it seems the factory background sounds went down to near silent.
That was just fascinating to watch! I’ve been on the fence about ordering pcbs and this somehow has made it feel more “real” and accessible. Impressive facility. Thanks Phil and @PCBWay!
Ordered so many boards from PCBway. I was buying boards made in the EU and had no idea how much more expensive they were. £5 in China vs £40 made in Germany for less boards.
A non-technical workmate asked me how circuit boards are made. After like an hour of explanation, I still missed many of these steps off the top of my head :)
It's fun to see the process at the factories that make many of the boards I've designed! I find the chemical specs particularly cool since they're the most removed from what I'm familiar with.
Well done! I was also surprised (like a few others who commented), at the amount of manual labor that seemed to be involved. I was expecting a lot more automation. I did notice a small thing at about 4:12. You said that for a 2 layer board you would go from step 2 (board cutting) directly to step 9 (Image the outer layers). I think you should have said to go from step 2 directly to step 7 (drilling the PCB). I would assume that a 2 layer board still needs to be drilled and the holes electroless plated. Thanks for the video, it was very informative.
It's amazing that PCB(A) production is so cheap considering the amount of work it takes to produce the boards. I took a trip around several PCB factories in Shenzhen a few years ago and they're enormous compared to anything I've seen in the UK.
Thank you very much for sharing this video. It would be great if you could create a video on DFM and DFA tips that you learned after witnessing the manufacturing process first hand and conversing with PCBWAY staff.
Thanks Phil. I would have liked to have heard about waste management and recycling. In the west, possibly unfairly, we have a critical view of some Chinese industrial practices.
Very cool. I was surprised by the etch process removes the photo mask from where you want the copper then using tin as the etch mask. Wonder what the benefit of the extra steps are over the more common technique of removing the UV mask where you want to etch away? 🤔
Hi Phil! Could you perhaps make a video about creating circuits that are powered via the wall outlet? Most of your videos (as far as I know) only concern USB or battery powered circuitry, but it would be great if you could get into the safety required for using the wall outlet as power supply for circuits.
I still see a lot of potention for optimisatin an automation so I wonder how they manage theire redicilous prices. But what is very impressive is, the moast machines I saw are actually build by chinese suppliers. I have worked on simmilar machines in europe for half a year and they are very complex.
I really can't understand how anyone can endorse PCBWay. They won't even let me upload gerber files to get a quote without entering data first *that can be read from the gerber file in the first place*. Utterly ridiculous ordering process. For a 85cm² 4-layer board, they are thrice as expensive as JLC, and even 20% more expensive than Aisler, who manufacture in Germany. How is everybody so happy with them, what am I missing here?
Thanks for watching! Sorry about the audio levels on this video. After rendering/upload to YT, it seems the factory background sounds went down to near silent.
It was a BLAST to have you there, Phil!🤭
Thank you very much for inviting me! :)
@@PhilsLab
Very cool being invited to tour the factory. Have many PCBWay PCB's that I've had manufactured over the years.
Definitely was an awesome experience!
We are so happy to have you there then！@@PhilsLab
It's a refreshing video from a TH-cam pcb guru instead of generic electronics TH-camr.
I also work in pcba manufacturing in Europe, have experience in SMT lines for a few years
Thanks a lot for your kind comment!
Thanks for taking the time to make this video! Well explained. Very fascinating stuff.
That was just fascinating to watch! I’ve been on the fence about ordering pcbs and this somehow has made it feel more “real” and accessible. Impressive facility. Thanks Phil and @PCBWay!
Amazing that they can turn totally custom products in a couple days. Really impressive.
Thank you Phil and PCBWay!
15:25 - I hope that wasn't my carefully calculated controlled impedance trace she scratches out with a knife!?
Haha I hope not 😅
Fascinating, definitely a process I would love to see in person...cheers.
Thanks, Andy!
Ooh! 31:00 interesting - grey market FPGAs with the barcode and SN lasered off. 😂
very cool video. I have seen a few tour videos before but your narration is just perfect
Thank you very much!
Thank you for this very interesting video. Good job!
Great tour. I love how cost effective and accessible this is for low volume hobbyists these days! Can't believe how much has changed over the years!
Ordered so many boards from PCBway. I was buying boards made in the EU and had no idea how much more expensive they were. £5 in China vs £40 made in Germany for less boards.
Most of our project PCB's are done in PCBway. great vid Phillip.
And after all this I used the wrong footprint.
A non-technical workmate asked me how circuit boards are made. After like an hour of explanation, I still missed many of these steps off the top of my head :)
Nice video! Love to see the inside of this PCB factories!
Thanks, John!
19:43 after 30sec of silence...a wild "from the manufacturing data" appears lol
It's fun to see the process at the factories that make many of the boards I've designed! I find the chemical specs particularly cool since they're the most removed from what I'm familiar with.
Well done!
I was also surprised (like a few others who commented), at the amount of manual labor that seemed to be involved. I was expecting a lot more automation.
I did notice a small thing at about 4:12. You said that for a 2 layer board you would go from step 2 (board cutting) directly to step 9 (Image the outer layers). I think you should have said to go from step 2 directly to step 7 (drilling the PCB). I would assume that a 2 layer board still needs to be drilled and the holes electroless plated.
Thanks for the video, it was very informative.
It's amazing that PCB(A) production is so cheap considering the amount of work it takes to produce the boards. I took a trip around several PCB factories in Shenzhen a few years ago and they're enormous compared to anything I've seen in the UK.
Yeah, it's incredible how accessible PCBA has become over the last few years.
Nice! Seems like it was a great experience - thanks for the insightful video.
Definitely was - thanks for watching!
Thank you for the tour!
Thanks for watching, Patrik!
It's crazy how cheap they are able to sell boards for given how complex the manufacturing process is. And with lots of human labor involved.
Thank you very much for sharing this video. It would be great if you could create a video on DFM and DFA tips that you learned after witnessing the manufacturing process first hand and conversing with PCBWAY staff.
Great idea!
I'll get a video made on that in the near future :)
Thanks! That was a cool and really enlightening video.
Glad you enjoyed it!
Great video.
Thanks, Jeremy!
Lovely.... thanks for taking the hit for us tall people and shrinking yourself into that bunny suit...
Haha sure thing :)
Thanks Phil. I would have liked to have heard about waste management and recycling. In the west, possibly unfairly, we have a critical view of some Chinese industrial practices.
Very cool. I was surprised by the etch process removes the photo mask from where you want the copper then using tin as the etch mask. Wonder what the benefit of the extra steps are over the more common technique of removing the UV mask where you want to etch away? 🤔
Vias being protected.
20:45 did PCBWay redact the name of the manufacturer?
Where the audio quickly cuts out? That was bad editing on my part, sorry.
19:43 there's some odd audio. Sounds like the beginning of your sentence was cut off.
Pretty impressive video :)
Thanks, Marek!
Hi Phil!
Could you perhaps make a video about creating circuits that are powered via the wall outlet? Most of your videos (as far as I know) only concern USB or battery powered circuitry, but it would be great if you could get into the safety required for using the wall outlet as power supply for circuits.
I still see a lot of potention for optimisatin an automation so I wonder how they manage theire redicilous prices. But what is very impressive is, the moast machines I saw are actually build by chinese suppliers. I have worked on simmilar machines in europe for half a year and they are very complex.
I really can't understand how anyone can endorse PCBWay. They won't even let me upload gerber files to get a quote without entering data first *that can be read from the gerber file in the first place*. Utterly ridiculous ordering process. For a 85cm² 4-layer board, they are thrice as expensive as JLC, and even 20% more expensive than Aisler, who manufacture in Germany. How is everybody so happy with them, what am I missing here?
👍
Ni hao