New PCB prototyping service comes to SA

5 August 2009 Manufacturing / Production Technology, Hardware & Services

Beta LAYOUT has made its entry into the South African marketplace with its acquisition of the Photocircuit facility in Cape Town.

From humble beginnings in 1989, Beta LAYOUT now boasts a customer base of over 20 000 and says it is growing at the impressive rate of over 150 new customers per month. In 1994, the company developed the PCB-POOL concept, whereby multiple customers’ PCBs are assembled on a common panel, enabling them to share the tooling costs.

Offering instant online quotations – said to be a first in South Africa – customers receive professionally manufactured prototype PCBs at discounted prices, live online order tracking and live online customer support. With no minimum quantity requirement, no tooling or setup charges and full design rule checks included on all orders, PCB-POOL offers lead times as short as five working days. The fully automated system provides electronic order confirmation and notification of problems.

Orders that do not fit the PCB-POOL cost saving criteria and medium-volume business is quoted on an order by order basis.

The WATCH”ur”PCB feature is a PCB monitoring service with online production control for customer prototypes. It provides high-resolution digital images of a PCB following completion of each manufacturing step. The images are exact representations of the manufacturing process at the drilling, exposure, tin stripping, UV curing and hot-air-levelling stages. Pictures can be sent by e-mail upon request and are also available online by accessing the customer’s account.

In recent years, Beta LAYOUT has diversified its product range. The company now also produces laser cut stainless stencils for the assembly of SMD designs, and offers tools, accessories and aids for prototype SMD assembly.

Beta LAYOUT is currently running a special offer whereby the first 100 customers that order through its website will win a Large Beta Reflow kit. The kit includes an oven, SMD test boards, stencil, solder paste, squeegee, tweezers and a multimeter with temperature range and sensor.

For more information contact Beta LAYOUT, +27 (0)21 691 7499, [email protected], www.beta-layout.co.za

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