Production Guidelines

To guarantee the smooth production, please ensure that your project includes details on Project Ordering and Kitting. Additionally, for surface-mount projects, please supply the necessary PCB and CAD data where appropriate.

Project Ordering Guidelines

Your purchase order must contain the following details:

  • Quantity of Assemblies to be built
  • PCB and Assembly Revisions
  • Bill of Materials

Project Ordering Guidelines

 Provide a Pick List with the following information:
  • Total Parts Required and Total Parts Supplied
  • Parts which are Not Supplied
  • Changes in Pick List to be noted
  • Deviations in Part Numbers on the Bill of Materials (ie. changes in IC names, % tolerance, or other values)

During the receiving of material kits, Surtek’s personnel will audit the shipment. We will advise of any discrepancies within 48 hours of receipt.

For production, we will require taped or reeled components. Where possible, please supply complete reels of components. All unused items will be returned, and the processing of loose or bulk issued components will result in additional charges to our quoted prices.

All IC’s must be in tubes or trays to prevent damage during transit.

Reels of taped components must have 5″ to 8″ clearance. If the first 5″ to 8″ is not clear of components, these components will be considered shrinkage.

Note: The components discarded in this process are not considered part of the rejection rate. This represents approximately 100 pieces of 1206 or 805 package size components (please supply additional components to account for this shrinkage).

Gerber File Guidelines

Gerber Files

Gerber Files must contain solder mask files and paste layer files. These files are required to manufacture the stencil. If PCB’s are palletized, we require the Gerber File for the palletized format.

Note:  During the palletizing of PCB’s, ensure the joints connecting the PCB to the pallet are strong enough to carry the weight when the PCB is fully loaded with components.

CAD Data

CAD Data must be in ASCII format and must contain reference designators (x,y) and the angle of rotation.

Our Automated SMT Placement Machine can handle PCB sizes ranging from 2″ to 20″ in width. Our Wave Solder Machine can accommodate PCB’s up to 15″ wide.

We prefer any PCB measuring less than 7″ x 4″ to be palletized.

  • All boards should have a minimum of 2, but preferably 4 fiducial points. Fiducial points can be in the following shapes (component fiducials can be the same size as board fiducials):
  • Boards with fine-pitch IC’s should have a component fiducial for each IC to ensure correct alignment of the part.
  • We require CAD Data and Gerber Files from the PCB developer to allow for the programming of the SMT Automated Placement Machines.

Upon request, Surtek can help with PCB Palletizing.