ALLPCB - no more stencils and no choosing of manufacturers

[tycz]

might seem crazy, but the going price in Shenzhen now for that is about USD$7.50!!   ( thats a framed electropolished )..  The days of them being $500 are gone.

Price is not a reason not to use them now.

Stencils have been reasonably cheap for a while now. In 2012 I tried to tell my boss that paying the equivalent of 500 USD for the Chinese stencils he was buying was overpriced. He did not believe me when I told him I had a contract manufacturer charge me only 30 USD for basically the same thing (which they outsourced).

Also, If you're using production assembly equipment to make prototypes, I'd guess you're easily in a 5% minority of people doing that. Most people I know are happy to use plastic/kapton stencils for prototypes. For me they are easier to use than the stainless steel ones as I don't have special printing tools/jigs at hand. Spending a few minutes fixing the soldering on my 0.4 mm IC with an iron is no bother.

[mrpackethead]

Also, If you're using production assembly equipment to make prototypes, I'd guess you're easily in a 5% minority of people doing that. Most people I know are happy to use plastic/kapton stencils for prototypes. For me they are easier to use than the stainless steel ones as I don't have special printing tools/jigs at hand. Spending a few minutes fixing the soldering on my 0.4 mm IC with an iron is no bother.

You can get a unframed stainless stencil for even less than the framed ones..   your  'jig' then becomes nothing more than some scrap FR4.. ( same height as your pcb ) and some tape.  For fine pitched stuff they are infinetly easier to use / and reuse than kapton.

[mrpackethead]

http://www.jlc-gw.com/index.html

See the pricing for stencils below..  These are in RMB..  ( 6.5 RMB = 1 USD ) ..  The Google Translation is not good..

/month is   per unit.   

[Koen]

AllPCB stencils are available again.

[mrpackethead]

Well that was a quick turn around...

[Spikee]

They probably order them on taoboa and make a 200%+ margin. Smart choice

[mrpackethead]

They get them at J@CL..    The local cost for them is 60RMB,   they sell them for USD$16.00... They are makign about $2.50..   Not a 200% margin. But an essential part of the service.
     

[Spikee]

60 rmb for frameless stencil is on the high side. For single order qty's you can get it for about 30. If you have big volume it is probably close to 15-20rmb

[mrpackethead]

Thats framed. and electropolished.      Framed stecils are as you suggest cheaper.

[mrpackethead]

Two stencils came from AllPCB today, these are ones that orginate from J@LC.  Interesting they say they can't order electroplished any longer.  And on the J@LC web site they say that they dont' offer this service..   ( and it stoped in 2013 ).. Under the microscope they definately look electropolished and are releasing solder ujust fine.

At $USD16 for a framed stencil, these are pretty good value.

[SMdude]

How much for shipping?
Do they make it from your own paste file?

[mrpackethead]

shipping is variable because it depends where you are, and i also normally get it combined with my pcbs...  By DHL its almost certiany more than the stencil it self.. but if your not in a hurry they have a slow option.
 
Best to check the freight charges on their web site.

[Spikee]

I ordered a 0.25mm hole, 5 mil trace pcb. To my suprise they like to quote me high but they are not actually equipped to do this kind of spec (even trough you can just select it on their website).
I was suggested to change it to 0.3mm hole and 6mil trace  .

So... I just ordered at HQPCB directly for about 75% of the price that Allpcb quoted.

[Erin.KOU]

Thanks for your Feedback.   
For some customer orders, when we do our audit, we look to see if there are any opportunity's to make the manufacturing process simpler.   
In this case we asked if it was possible to use 0.3mm Vias and 6mil track.   We can  make .25mm and 5mil track,  but it is more expensive and more complex, and we wanted to provide this feedback to you.
Please accept our apology for any inconvience this has caused.

We are constantly updating both our service and fabrication capability.  We have very recently taken delivery of a new NC drill machine from Taiwan, it arrived yesterday.
The engineers are  installing, configuring and calibrating it this week.

As for price, different companies have different prices. Some times our price may  be higher, but mostly our price is better.  All of our services include quick manufacture for expidited service, this often is an expensive add on with other PCB fabricators. I hope that this helps you understand

Best regards,

Erin

[Yansi]

I never ordered any stencils for any PCBs. I alway soldered anything needed by hand, down to 0.4mm pitch QFPs and 402/603 SMDs. Pain in the ass, might be, but for my one-off quantity prototypes? Not much of a deal. Can live without stencils for sure.