Cirtech Electronics launched its new PCB manufacturing plant in February this year. After 15 years of supplying the southern African market with quality, imported product, Cirtech saw the need for a manufacturer of high quality PCBs in South Africa. One of the key considerations behind the decision was the need for quicker turnaround times between order placement and delivery.
The Cirtech plant comprises the latest and best equipment available. To ensure maximum efficiency and quality, the entire operation is housed in a single dust-free, temperature controlled environment, where contamination by dust or moisture in transit is eliminated by the use of hermetically sealed packaging.
Working with tolerances measured in microns requires total control of the environment
Quality control is central to the functioning of the new plant. Before an order goes to the line, a design rule check ensures that the PCBs are within manufacturing tolerances. Because PCB manufacture is an intricate marriage of photographic and electrolytic processes, a strand of hair or a particle of dust can cause an unwanted connection or break in the micro-fine printed circuitry. To ensure the integrity of each board, thorough inspection is conducted during manufacture and before dispatch. Inner layer inspection is carried out in a clean room through a laser-driven automatic optical inspection (AOI) apparatus and all boards are subject to flying probe electrical testing before dispatch.
To reduce human involvement in the manufacturing to a minimum, the production line is fully automated. This ensures that dipping, curing and drying times are optimised, during the crucial wet stages of the process. The chances of contamination of the micron-thin laminations are thus reduced to virtually zero. An in-house laboratory controls the OMG chemistry used throughout the plant.
Cirtech offers various finishes to its PCBs, including immersion Nickel Gold, hot air solder level, organic surface preparation, immersion Silver and conductive Carbon. The plant is currently equipped to manufacture single-sided, double-sided and multilayer PCBs with a variety of solder mask colours.
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