Industry:
Industrial Customer
Application:
Hand-held device to measure airborne chemical elements
Opportunity:
FCT was engaged by the customer to support them with the design, prototyping and production of a challenging rigid flex circuit and assembly. The customer was frustrated given previous unsuccessful attempts with other suppliers to attain a successful rigid flex circuit that would perform as desired.
The desired product was a complex 10-layer rigid-flex design assembly to be utilized in a hand-held device that would measure certain chemical elements in the air.
Solution:
FCT did a detailed review of the design and was able to redline the print, adjust some notes that were unclear, and adjusted the data that would allow for successful manufacturing of the rigid flex board. Some adjustments included; proper sizing of the blind and buried vias, associated pad sizes, proper stacking and adjustments to SMT pads to meet recommendations that would lead to the successful manufacturing of this product. Often it takes highly experienced front end consultation and working through some give and take with the customer in order to get to a cost-effective solution that can be manufactured at high yields while assuring the product will meet overall customer requirements.
Result:
Given the recommended adjustments to this product, FCT was able to able to successfully build and ship this complex rigid flex assembly during the prototyping stage. We then worked with the customer to meet their schedule in conducting additional pilot runs and today are meeting the customers longer term larger scale production needs.
Given upfront costs related to tooling, FCT also worked with the customer to spread these costs across the first 12 months of production shipments in support of alleviating some of the front-end financial burden. Given the service, support and success that we were able to attain with this very complex rigid flex assembly; orders for additional circuit/assemblies have been received.
An outstanding relationship has been established with this customer due to providing excellent front end consultation that led to success including high yields and cost-effective solutions while also providing continuous and responsive service and support. The customer is very pleased with the relationship that they have developed with FCT.
