Free PCB: [ THIS IS NOT PCB FAB SPAM ]

[mrpackethead]

It had to happen. One of the fabs ( not going to name them because well. it will be pcb fab flame bait ), is givign away 2 layer pcbs 5 pces for FREE, ( new customers )..  Just pay for postage.. if you use the low cost options this can be as little as $5 to the US!   

Does anyone else worry that the pcb fab industry has got to a point that they are not going to make any money and they will all start shutting up and then we wont' have the cheap pcb fab capability?

[pix3l]

I think they are trying anything they can to win your soul (or money ;-)

PCB's are getting increasingly cheap, I think what also helps making this possible is economy of scale : the more boards you are able to make, the cheaper you can do it.

[Berni]

Yeah even the $2 offer from JLC has me worried about it.

The PCB market is getting way too saturated and seams like they are desperate to get costumers. At some point the whole thing is going to break down and result in something similar to the recent "great ceramic capacitor shortage"

[Psi]

Yeah even the $2 offer from JLC has me worried about it.

The PCB market is getting way too saturated and seams like they are desperate to get costumers. At some point the whole thing is going to break down and result in something similar to the recent "great ceramic capacitor shortage"

I doubt it, some of them will go under/bankrupt and the others will get more business which makes them less likely to go under themselves. It's all self correcting.

For a Great PCB Shortage you'd need to have two factors happening at once.
Like a few of the major PCB companies going under and the demand for PCBs to reduce at the same time.

eg, maybe some new 3D printer tech comes along and suddenly everyone gets the ability to print perfectly solderable copper tracks onto a bare pcb. (ok, maybe that's a bit unlikely, but you get the idea.)

[Mechatrommer]

is givign away 2 layer pcbs 5 pces for FREE, ( new customers )..

and then what? (for returning customers)

( not going to name them because well. it will be pcb fab flame bait )
Does anyone else worry that the pcb fab industry has got to a point that they are not going to make any money and they will all start shutting up and then we wont' have the cheap pcb fab capability?

just name it. we will enjoy to see how it goes... (customers who only want to get free meal and not returning back )

[harnon]

I'm not familiar with the finances for these PCB houses but I always assumed these small volume orders were simply "stocking stuffers" i.e. the space on the panels (not taken up by the large profitable orders) would otherwise just be empty, so its sold at basically 0 cost for a small profit or to drum up new business. If they get a few big profitable orders from these then its basically free marketing.

[Berni]

Well if they get a large order then that order itself fills the whole panel up(Or actually multiple panels) so no need to stuff it with extra designs.

But offering small prototypes is indeed excellent marketing to get the big orders in. Typically you first order prototype boards and once the prototype works you order for example 250 of that board. And since you already have 'samples' of what the board will look like in the form of prototypes its the easiest to simply make the big order at the same PCB house too.

Also we commonly mix prototype and production orders at the Chinese PCB place we use, just because we don't want to deal with multiple PCB fabs, saves on shipping, and they are cheap for high volume too. So a place that only does large orders will have trouble getting us to use them.

[Koen]

I like this. I like students and newcomers be able to order 5USD PCBs to learn and test. I don't mind paying for it with my expensive orders. In a few years, they will order expensive PCBs too and subsidize cheap PCBs for other newcomers.