Looking down the road, I may need a quantity of PCB's fabricated. Maybe just bare boards, maybe stuffed, I'm not sure right now. Naturally, since the cost is low, looking offshore is an attractive option.
If anyone has been down this road, sharing their experience would be a great help. I would think that some of these overseas factories would have local agents recruiting business, and acting as a liaison, for them. It would certainly be easier than flying abroad and turning in circles all without the benefit of fluency in their language. It's no telling what you may end up getting.
Len
“To invent, you need a good imagination and a big pile of junk.” (T. Edison)
"I must be on the way to success since I already have the junk". (Me)
more than likely that a PCB you buy from a US company is built in China anyway. Some is still built in US but much is farmed out to shops offshore. For a reseller, its a process of qualifying your suppliers. however for a one off buy you should request samples and price out several shops. If the technology is not too advanced, anyone can make a decedent board. If you are using 7/7 trace/space design rules and less than 10 layers and 25mil pitch or larger contacts then the spec is easy.
I get 1-3 spam a day from offshore PCB and job shops, send me an email and I can forward a few to you otherwise they are not hard to google.
Just buying a PCB lot is not too hard. Getting it assembled is another step and if you want to keep the best margins by doing it yourself, it may take a little more of a learning curve. I know companies in the US who do this for you but you give a lot of margin to them. Most PCB shops in china have a network of contacts in the assembly shops and can often offer turnkey solutions regardless of if you call on the assembler or PCB shop first.
for turnkey (from PCB to module all the way up to final product), I might survey Alibaba (or ali express) for similar complexity assemblies to identify a few contract assemblers and then make some what if requests for quotes. for PCB I could do the same or just follow up on some of the spam I get
Finally if you search on "China Manufacturing" you will find several websites specializing on hooking you up with the right supplier. It may not be simple and does require some capital but it is far more user friendly than it used to be and there are lots of resources
I just got back from Shenzhen, I am so envious of their electronics marketplaces and local manufacturing supply chain. I'll post more about that in another post.
