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The public Chinese Lunar New Year holiday is coming up in February 2021. It is a welcome and well deserved break for Chinese workers. However, it is also a notoriously stressful time for the global manufacturing industry. Although it is still a couple months away, we want to make sure our customers are informed so that they can adjust their build schedules ahead of time and avoid potential delays. Here's what to expect this year and how you can prepare.

In this episode we delve into the process of Automated Optical Inspection (AOI).

On this episode are joined by Dave Wilcox, a CAM engineer at CircuitHub who has been working with PCBs for 32 years. Dave gives us a 10,000 ft level overview of the PCB fab process, using a simple, standard 1.6mm thick, 2-layer board as an example.

Welcome to another week! This episode Chris and Melissa discuss reflow soldering - the high volume soldering method that melts all of the solder at the same time and sets it to the circuit board. Even though it's a relatively simple process, it's a step that is really important to get right.

Welcome to our 10th episode of the podcast! Not only is this our 10th full episode, but we also have recently surpassed 1,000 episode downloads! On this episode we talk to Joel Murphy, an electro-mechanical designer and fabricator with 15 years of hands-on experience in the design of products and small scale production tooling. He's also a huge advocate for the Open Source Hardware movement, founder of Flywheel Lab, OpenBCI and more!

We think one of the best ways to understand what goes into PCB assembly is to speak to the experts themselves, those who spend day in and day out building your stuff! On this week's episode we speak to Beata Laskowski, a quality control inspector at Worthington.

We had the pleasure of chatting with Matthew Laderer, Director of Engineering and Product Development at Loci Controls. Loci Controls' automated landfill gas collection platform increases landfill gas collection by 20% or more, ensures less methane is being released into the atmosphere, and reduces environmental, health, and safety risks.

Every PCB design is a delicate balance between functionality and price. When it comes to PCB fabrication, the general rule of thumb is the smaller anything is, the more it costs to produce.

On this week's episode we talk about something that at first glance might seem mundane, but is actually one of the most important steps and literally the foundation of pcb assembly: past printing. In fact, approximately 65% of all assembly defects come from this process. Chris breaks down all of the components that are a part of the often misunderstood process and provides some design tips on how to make it go smoother.

Formlabs is ubiquitous with 3D printing. Jon Evans, Electrical Engineering Lead at Formlabs, gave us a little peek into where it all started, what the company is currently working on, and how they are continuously trying to revolutionize the manufacturing industry.