The aerospace industry depends on quality-engineered printed circuit board (PCB) assemblies to ensure reliable equipment performance in critical applications. Aerospace PCB assembly services help manufacturers achieve this goal. Involving the careful design of a PCB prior to manufacturing it, these services produce quality components virtually free of flaws.
Compared to traditional assembly services for PCBs, the precision of aerospace PCB assembly cuts down on parts rework and replacement, labor costs, and production time. Alternately, high-performance aerospace PCB assemblies support efficient, continuous operations and can enhance your company’s reputation amongst satisfied customers. Read on to learn more about the struggles the aerospace industry encounters and how PCB assembly from a trusted service provider can elevate your products.
Overcoming the Challenges in Aerospace PCB Assembly
Aerospace industry manufacturers face both regulatory and physical challenges in creating components for air- and spacecraft, requiring durable PCB assemblies that offer dependable performance even under harsh conditions.
Compliance With Stringent Industry Standards
Given their mission-critical applications, aerospace PCB assemblies have to comply with strict quality and safety standards. Meeting these exacting industry requirements helps guarantee that an assembly, down to its very last part and regardless of its environment, will achieve optimal performance in aerospace applications.
Assembly Weight
PCB assemblies for the aerospace industry must adequately balance durable strength with lightweight construction. This helps keep costs down while increasing fuel efficiency as well as payload capacity for passengers and cargo.
Vibrations
Aerospace PCB assemblies and their parts are sensitive components, meaning that the vibrations they experience during flight can impact their functionality or damage them. Often, such damage occurs at soldered joints as they weaken or fracture, affecting circuitry as well as navigation and control systems or disrupting connections and communications.
Fluctuating Temperatures
Aerospace applications subject their equipment to everything from rapid altitude changes to harsh environmental conditions. Experiencing extreme heat and cold — sometimes both within a short timeframe — air- and spacecraft PCB assemblies must reliably withstand intense temperatures and varying thermal conditions without sacrificing performance.
Addressing Aerospace Industry Challenges
Manufacturers employ various techniques to surmount the difficulties inherent to production for the aerospace sector. This can range from copper plating to enhance heat dissipation in a component to generating high-temperature laminates that help assemblies survive exposure to extreme heat. Component miniaturization is another solution that’s becoming increasingly popular as miniaturized parts help reduce weight while delivering uncompromising durability and performance.
Applications and Benefits of Aerospace PCB Manufacturing and Assembly
Aerospace PCB assembly is critical to making parts for the following systems and technologies:
- Battery management systems (BMSs)
- Communication, navigation, and control systems
- Aviation instrumentation
- Radar installations
- Satellite equipment
- Power and thermal sensors
Regardless of the application, high-quality assemblies are extremely advantageous in the aerospace sector. In addition to offering benefits like impact and vibration resistance that other industries might require, aerospace PCB assemblies also have to hold up against high-speed motion, extreme and changing temperatures and pressures, radioactivity, and more. From handling takeoff, in-flight, and landing conditions in aircraft to harsh outer space environments in space vessels, aerospace PCB assemblies retain their integrity to be fully operational.
Precision Assembly for Complex Electronics
The accuracy of precision-engineered aerospace assemblies helps ensure lasting durability, continued operations, and proper fit within existing equipment while making complex systems and designs possible. Through precise soldering, manufacturers can construct high-performance PCBs and reliable circuitry to not only promote maximal performance in demanding applications but also prevent accidents and fatalities.
Continued Operation in Challenging Environments
Companies manufacturing PCBs engineer high-temperature laminate substrates using materials like aluminum and copper, allowing a PCB to withstand excessive heat. They can also incorporate specialty materials into these substrates for radiation mitigation.
Planning for and Handling Equipment Failure
Proper functionality and safety are of paramount concern in the aerospace industry. While stringent quality control and testing practices throughout PCB assembly production will lessen the chance of part failure, manufacturers for this market must design products and systems with reliable backup options in mind. The goal is to minimize the impact of potential component failure by creating system redundancy through PCB assembly. In this way, companies better ensure smooth, ongoing operations when a part inevitably fails.
Achieving Aerospace PCB Assembly With Circuit Pak
At Circuit Pak, Inc., we understand the challenges facing our customers in the aerospace industry. Since 1983, we’ve supported a diverse client base as a leading provider of trusted PCB assembly, kitting, quality control, and related value-added services. Our team is experienced in thru-hole as well as surface mount assembly, placing approximately 80,000 parts per hour without sacrificing quality, consistency, or assembly integrity.
Be it simple or complex, Circuit Pak can support your project with complete PCB assembly solutions. Contact us to speak with an expert about our capabilities for your aerospace application, or request a quote today.