PCB Assembly Services UK

UK PCB Assembly Services

A PCB assembly service with the flexibility to meet your requirements.

We’ve fine-tuned our UK PCB assembly services over more than 35 years in the industry.

Our fully automated production lines with SPI and flexible placement machines guarantee pinpoint accuracy.

We might just offer the fastest and most flexible PCB assembly service in the UK.

Which is reassuring if you need dependable production, from pre-production to series production. We’re equally adept with through-hole PCB assembly technology, with skilled specialists working in dedicated cells.

It begins with the PCB Gerbers and BoM. We assume nothing. Which means we prefer to start with checking the data you provide for quality and coherence – if we find any flaws, we’ll let you know.

With an approved Bill of Materials (BoM) and a complete Gerber pack (open ASCII vector files defining the entire PCB design, layer by layer) in hand, we can schedule your PCB assembly service.

Some clients provide us with all components, others prefer to save time and hassle and leave PCB supply and component sourcing to us. There isn’t a PCB-compatible component we don’t have a supplier for, so it’s often the simplest solution, requiring a lot less logistical fuss. It often means a lower cost per component, thanks to our ability to source from an established supply chain.

PCB Circuit Board

The full array of PCB boards, for every PCB assembly use case

Single-sided PCBs
Double-sided PCBs
Multilayer PCBs
Rigid PCBs
Flexible PCBs
Rigid-Flex (Hybrid) PCBs
LED PCBs
HDI PCBs

All of our boards are sourced from UL-approved PCB board fabricators.

PCB Circuit Board

SMT (surface-mount technology)

A PCB assembly technique well suited to smaller components, higher density and greater volumes.

SMT has become the industry standard for most PCB assemblies nowadays. 

Each component is surface-mounted on solder paste and soldered using the reflow technique.

PCB Circuit Board

THT (through-hole technology)

Sometimes hand-placed, or sometimes placed by our machines, this PCB assembly technique involves directing each component’s metal wires through holes.

These are then wave-soldered (also known as flow soldering) from the other side to terminate them.

PCB assembly is the process of attaching electronic components to a printed circuit board (PCB) in order to create a functioning electronic device. The components are typically soldered to the PCB using automated equipment, although manual assembly methods can also be used. The PCB assembly process is an important step in the manufacturing of electronic products, as it allows for the creation of complex circuits in a reliable and efficient manner.

We’re used to working with complex circuit designs, odd-form components and the tiniest and most advanced components available, including micro-ball grid arrays (micro BGAs). We can go down to 0201 (0.6mm x 0.3mm).

Small is beautiful – and large requires a specialist, too. Good news for our clients who require the assembly of large format PCBs, as often found in LED lighting arrays and antenna PCBs.

All PCBAs are assembled in accordance with IPC-A-610 Class 3 standards, so we can assemble boards suited to harsh operating environments and, needless to say, with all due ESD (electrostatic discharge) and moisture sensitivity precautions.

Fully automated PCB assembly process

PCBAs assembled through end-to-end automation go through the following processes:

To find out more about our PCB assembly process and capabilities, just get in touch.

All of our assembled PCBs are inspected using a variety of high-resolution inspection systems.

A wide range of test, programming and ‘burn-in’ options are also available to complement the service.

Once they have passed our quality inspection, your PCBAs are ready for shipping or, if you take advantage of our cable assembly services and complete product assembly, they move on to the next stage in the assembly process.

Whilst we predominantly use no-clean fluxes, many in the industry do not want to see residue remaining on their PCBs, especially where products are safety critical.

PCBs are cleaned using advanced chemistry and processes, to ensure no residues or contaminants remain.

This is an essential step if PCBs are then going to be successfully conformally coated, but also adds to the long term reliability of PCBs which do not require further processing.

When a specialist lighting manufacturer required an additional batch of LED panels producing, outside of their existing suppliers fixed schedule, they came to us. 

Our automated high speed SMT line quickly processed these boards. LED panels are typically densely populated, this is where placement speed counts. 

We were able to assemble these boards far quicker than the original supplier. This meant not only could we meet the required delivery date, but we could lower the customers costs too. As a result, ongoing production requirements were transferred to us.

Having experienced less than acceptable yields on their product, a studio grade audio manufacturer entrusted us to build a batch of boards for them. 

The boards were assembled to IPC-A610 Class 3 acceptance standards… as standard. The customer reported a 100% acceptance rate upon test, this was something they had not experienced before. 

What the cause of their previous issues were, is not known to us, but sourcing genuine quality parts from our established supply chain and building product to the highest acceptance standards, surely contributed to the 100% acceptance rate of the product we supplied.

If you’ve got questions then now is the right time to ask them. Get in touch with our team today or send us your specifications to sales@protronix.co.uk.

Why Choose Protronix EMS?

or Contact Us to talk about your requirements

Protronix EMS Ltd manufactured the circuit boards for our Cryoegg instrument. They sourced the components, PCBs and did the assembly on a very short timescale ready for our field tests in Greenland in the summer of 2019. The instrument performed very well during our tests, and it was able to send us measurements from beneath 1.3km of ice.

School of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Cardiff University

The success and growth of our product would not have been achievable without the quality, service and flexibility we received from Protronix EMS.

Founder and CEO, IoT Company

Protronix EMS provided us with reliable cable assemblies and continuous on-time delivery during our product's life cycle.

MD, Agricultural Technology Company

Following mixed results with PCB suppliers, we approached Protronix EMS for some bare boards. They provide us with quality UL certified boards, at pricing we cannot beat elsewhere. We assemble in-house, but Protronix EMS provide all our bare boards, in various laminates, layer counts and finishes.

Supply Chain Manager, Scientific Instrumentation Manufacturer

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An assembled PCB is a printed circuit board which has components mounted on it. The manufacturing process which takes a bare board to a fully assembled PCB ready to use in an electronic product is called PCB assembly.

We’ll need the PCB Gerbers and BoM to be able to give you a quote. Once we have these we’ll aim to get your quote to you in 24hrs.

We suggest using 4 weeks as a guide. There are many factors which can reduce or increase this.
Our PCB assemblies are used in any type of electrical product you can imagine, across many different sectors. Some of these sectors include scientific instrumentation, healthcare, aviation, consumer products and many more.

We have built plenty of single boards for customers, but also batches of 100,000 boards and everything in between. Unless the board is highly complex and/or of very high value, it is often most cost effective to build 5-10 boards.

Yes we can! Some clients provide us with all components, others prefer to save time, hassle and cost, by leaving PCB supply and component sourcing to us. There isn’t a PCB-compatible component we don’t have a supplier for, so it’s often the simplest solution, requiring a lot less logistical fuss. It often means a lower cost per component as well, thanks to our ability to source from an established supply chain.

All PCBAs are assembled in accordance with IPC-A-610 Class 3 standards, so we can assemble boards suited to harsh operating environments and with all due anti-ESD (electrostatic discharge) and moisture sensitivity precautions.

We have extremely strict QA procedures so that you get the highest acceptance rate possible. All of our assembled PCBs are inspected using a variety of high-resolution inspection systems. We are always seeking continual improvement, examining the latest technologies and advancements, to see how they may benefit our customers, as we strive for perfection.

See how we can help with your next PCB project

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