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How is tooling important for pcb manufacturing?

I received the price breakdown of PCB quotation from my suppliers. The tooling fee is not so pretty. What is this process and can we skip it to save the cost?

pcb manufacturing
September 19, 2023

Tooling is the key for programming of CNC producing.

IN PCB (bare board) manufacture that includes making the photo masks for the printed layers, masks, programming the drill movements and bit changes.

Basically, all the processes of NRE tooling are done once no matter how many boards are to be made. Small orders with below 5 boards tooling costs $1000s of dollars that is up to 50% of the whole order, while the tooling fee of order with large amount(100ps, 1000ps or 10,000ps or more) is cost-effective for each piece.

No matter how much is your order, the tooling is indispensable. It can’t be made economically without it.

Oliver Smith

Oliver is an experienced electronics engineer skilled in PCB design, analog circuits, embedded systems, and prototyping. His deep knowledge spans schematic capture, firmware coding, simulation, layout, testing, and troubleshooting. Oliver excels at taking projects from concept to mass production using his electrical design talents and mechanical aptitude.

Oliver Smith

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