While flexible or rigid-flex PCBs are nowadays widely used for most applications, rigid PCBs still hold value and find application in specific segments where rigidity and structural stability are important. Rigid PCB manufacturing capabilities, for any player, depend on different factors, including the complexity of the design, components mounted on the board, number of possible
The PCB industry seems to be facing more obstacles as the US economy slowly tries to rise from financial depression. Recently, IPC published its findings on the industry’s year-on-year sales growth. The findings showed that while PCB sales were improving, they were still quite slow. As compared to 2013, the total shipments from North America increased in 2014 by 1.6%. However, this has moved the year-to-year growth to -0.2%. PCB bookings were also in the negative with sales ending at 1.5%. When these numbers were compared with those of April 2014, total shipments had reduced by 20%, and order bookings by 8.1%.
This is certainly not good news. However, every dark cloud has a silver lining. This slow growth period has influenced small to medium sized PCB manufacturers to strengthen communications with clients, and ameliorate their manufacturing processes.