We are pleased to announce our upcoming webinar: “Soldermask 101”. We’ll have representatives from Taiyo-America along for some keen insight, best practices, and “do’s and don’ts” in the world of soldermask application. It’s never too late to learn something and, perhaps, avoid an issue down the road.

We’ll be sending out the official registration link (it’s free to register) in the coming days and do hope that you’ll join us.

Many domestic customers went all in for price when it came to their purchasing strategies for PCB procurement. These companies (and buyers) were more than happy, delighted in fact, to run over to China for their PCB needs. This buying strategy was instituted with no regard to quality, national security, ecology, or human rights. There was no foresight from anyone, as to the potential economic downsides to this new buying “strategy”.

When the great PCB migration began, there were roughly 1800 domestic PCB shops; today less than 200 remain. PCB demand has certainly not decreased, but the search for the cheapest possible solution has cultivated a market devoid of tangible and intangible differentiators except for price, of course.

Everything changed when governmental responses to COVID-19 caused ripples in our daily lives and supply chain, which was not immune to forced shutdowns, culminating into the long lead times and increased costs we see today.

So, with the fractured supply chain, there’s never been a better time to look at domestic sources. Let’s list some of the value you get by doing so:

-You know exactly where the boards are being built so you can keep track of the progress and easily visit the facility.
-Your intellectual property is in safe hands. It is an open secret that your IP always threatened when you buy offshore.
-OEMs are not as vulnerable to global crisis like pandemics and wars. If you are buying boards from a company in Chicago, you don’t have to worry about those being boards being stuck on a cargo ship in Hong Kong, or even on the West Coast.
-You assist in sustaining a critical domestic industry.
-You are supporting our own country’s national security. Think of all the defense and aerospace products that need to be engineered and fabricated domestically.
-The often overlooked aspects of cost reduction from less expensive shipping, communications (engineering turnaround time), and problem solving for better yields are critical to success in this difficult manufacturing landscape.