Whelen Engineering

21st Century PCB FAB Factory Design Which Eliminates Regional Cost Advantages

Nov 01, 2017 | Alexander Stepinski

Over fifteen years has passed since North America and Europe ceased being the center of worldwide PCB fabrication, and were supplanted by a Far East market with low cost labor, more relaxed environmental requirements, and strong government support. In just a few short years, the superior cost advantages of this new dynamic put volume PCB production in the West out of business, aside for the military and specialty technology applications contained in the few shops that continue to exist today.

Recently, however, the conditions which created the current equilibrium appear to be shifting again. In this new dynamic, automation, innovative green wastewater technologies, and next generation process equipment innovations have combined to make new factories capable of achieving rapid ROI for PCB fabrication almost anywhere. This paper means to illustrate this new dynamic, and provide case study examples from the new greenfield installation at the company captive facility in New Hampshire....