PCB Fab with best silkscreening?

[1276-2449-1-ND]

I have a bunch of boards that are used as panels and need good looking silkscreening. Nothing crazy -- the current LPI or mesh size used by most board houses is suitable. However the silkscreening shouldn't be smudged or smeared, have defects caused by clogged screen, spots from holes in the screen emulsion, blurry edges from overexposed screens, have offcolour inks or soldermask, have heavy scratches or tooling gouges, etc...

I currently get them done through Dirty PCBs (because they have no problems with pre-panellized PCBs) and most of the time they do an okay job. But occasionally they come back with effed-up silkscreening -- something Dirty PCBs has no control over because they farm them out to any number of board houses.

Can anyone recommend a fab that does a consistently decent job on silkscreening (preferably one that does their own PCBs so they can be asked to take care that the silkscreening comes out okay)?

[jeduffy]

Advanced circuits is a pretty standard professional fab, but priced to match. Sunstone is pretty good as well, and is significantly cheaper, but I haven't used them in a couple years.

[mairo]

I am also looking for a good and cheap  PCB manufacturer that can do very good silkscreening.

These Korean guys seems to have positive reviews online, but have never tried them myself:
http://quickturnpcb.co.kr/

[jeremy]

What you want for the really good stuff is not silkscreening, but a second layer of white soldermask. This is what they do on the official arduino boards for the silkscreen (take a look at one, if it’s a genuine one the white text and drawings should be extremely crisp). This isn’t printed or silk screened, it is applied as a liquid polymer and then lithographically processed beyond that.

If your order is big enough I’m sure most factories would do it for you.

[sam512bb]

<snip>

These Korean guys seems to have positive reviews online, but have never tried them myself:
http://quickturnpcb.co.kr/

I have been a customer of theirs for almost 8 years!  They do great work and are fast.  I am continually impressed with their quality and they are the only shop that I send my 4+ layer boards to.

Cheers,

Sam

[T3sl4co1l]

Well, you get what you pay for.  But even top-price suppliers will make blemishes and leave them in, unless your spec says otherwise.

Typical example, PCBCart does what looks like a raster (inkjet) process, rather than "silkscreen" as such.  It has reasonable resolution, apparent blocky edges, and a streaky scan (much as dirty nozzles in any inkjet looks).  I haven't noticed any voids, but if you need a solid layer, for appearances, or for insulation, you'll want to request a second coat (nonstandard process, $).

You can also get multiple soldermask layers or colors, if you like; there's a lot of flexibility in PCB fab, but you have to be willing to pay for it, as soon as you stray the slightest bit from the commodity proto service.

Tim

[flasonsmts]

infact the Chinese PCB manufacturer do a perfect job on PCB prototype and production

[Alex Eisenhut]

Best "silkscreen" (legend print) is LPI, same process as soldermask.