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Electronics Manufacturing

Design for manufacturability (DFM)—designing electronics devices with the manufacturing process in mind—lets you produce a high-quality product at a lower cost. It hasn’t always been a priority for those in need of electronics manufacturing, but that’s changing now as supply chain issues continue to hamper electronics manufacturing.

Why Design for Manufacturability?

Design for Manufacturability can help you:

  • Design out custom processes as much as possible to create a highly efficient, streamlined manufacturing and assembly line. This reduces labor time, which reduces cost.
  • Lower the risk of bad outcomes. The percentage of wasted units is reduced because products turn out consistently viable. Reviewing a product design through a DFM lens ensures the highest-quality product at the lowest overall cost.
  • Improve quality through testing. Testability is essential for creating an efficient manufacturing process. Designing with testing in mind ensures that engineers can easily and thoroughly test the product so that only reliable, high-quality products make it out the door.
  • Avoid nonstandard components that must be soldered by hand. In most cases, it is less expensive to use parts that can be installed using machine-based processes. This approach is also faster and ensures greater consistency—unlike humans, machines don’t get tired and create imperfect solder joints. And of course, having machines do the job of soldering is safer for workers.

The Supply Chain Threat

Beginning in 2020, the global supply chain became highly unpredictable. While conditions have improved, supply chains can still be unreliable. Design for Manufacturability is a secret weapon that allows you to better adapt to continuing global supply chain disruptions. For example:

  • Some parts that used to be easily sourced in tape-and-reel format may now only be available in bulk. This means they cannot be directly loaded by machine; they must be hand-soldered or sent out to a third party to be reeled, which adds time and cost. If you can redesign the product BOM to use alternate MPN’s, the manufacturing process will be more robust and allow for marketplace inconsistencies.
  • Relying on custom parts can also be a problem if there is only one supplier, which can put a whole product at risk. Standardized parts, on the other hand, can typically be sourced from multiple suppliers, who, at a minimum, will carry alternate parts that may not require design changes. We recommend to our customers that they move away from custom parts whenever possible.

For example, it is not uncommon for custom chips to be back ordered for months. However, if you can replace a scarce part with one that is available now, you’re back in business.

Redesign to the Rescue

Swapping out components often requires redesigning upstream and downstream processes. Swapping a processor can mean a redesign of a complex board, for example. But if you have DFM-based engineers in-house, you can save time and money with a design review to identify these risks early. Some recent product examples, negative and positive, include:

  • A company built their product around the Raspberry Pi single-board computer module. Because Raspberry Pi’s are both inexpensive and reliable, that decision allowed the company to produce a great product at a low cost in a very short amount of time. But when Raspberry Pi’s became extremely hard to source, they were in trouble.
  • A Class II medical device relied on a main processor that was suddenly backlogged for more than six months. A DFM review assisted their redesign of the main PCBA so it could work with a different processor that was widely in stock. They were able to redesign, prototype, and validate the product to make a manufacturing changeover in under three months.

Redesigns like this are becoming more common now, as OEMs adapt to supply chain shortages.

Look for Experience

A good DFM partner will understand your priorities and help you streamline your product’s design to meet your goals. Experienced engineers who have worked on hundreds of devices will know how to optimize your product. Some engineers have been doing this for so long that they have an intuitive feel for good product design. These are folks you want on your team. Degrees are good, but design and manufacturing experience are paramount when it comes to DFM.

A Win-Win

Successful DFM efforts create a win-win for contract electronics manufacturers and their customers. DFM allows you to develop a much cleaner manufacturing and assembly process for the product. If you can reduce custom processes, you can create highly efficient, streamlined manufacturing and assembly lines. This reduces labor time, which reduces cost. And the cleaner the manufacturing process, the lower the risk of a bad outcome.

Streamline Your Manufacturing

Are you seeking to wring more profit at the end of your product’s lifecycle? Do you want to build a more sustainable device? Or maybe you want to develop a less expensive manufacturing process. Whatever your priorities, the engineers at PRIDE Industries have the DFM and DFT expertise to help you reach your manufacturing goals.
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The impact of electronic waste on the environment continues to grow, prompting consumers to make ever-louder demands for sustainably made electronics. Today’s users want the benefits of electronic devices, without sacrificing the welfare of future generations. That’s a tall order for any industry. But it is possible to satisfy the green wishes of consumers—if you keep design for sustainability in mind when creating new products.

But what exactly does this mean?

Design for sustainability (DFS) is an approach to design that considers the environmental, economic, and social impacts of a product throughout its entire lifecycle. The goal of DFS is to reduce the overall environmental impact of a product, from the extraction of raw materials to its disposal. By making greener choices at every stage of a product’s lifecycle, and throughout the supply chain, manufacturers can create a product that passes muster with today’s environmentally conscious consumers. Here are five ways that electronics companies can make their products greener—and more appealing to consumers.

Use Sustainable Materials

Many of the metals, plastics, and chemicals that are used to make electronics are harmful to the environment. So much so that even their disposal can have severe environmental impacts. So one of the first ways to design sustainability into a product is to look for materials that are easy to recycle—or better yet, that can biodegrade on their own.

Plastic is the most visible material of any electronics device. It’s what the consumer sees and touches. And these days, many consumers are alert to plastic pollution, and aware of a slew of grim statistics about the material. They know that the world produces about 400 tons of plastic waste every year, that only about 6% of plastic waste in the U.S. is recycled annually, and that the Great Pacific Garbage Patch is twice the size of Texas and contains 1.8 trillion pieces of plastic.

Plastic pollution is a widely recognized problem. So manufacturers that use recycled plastic for their products—or better yet, biodegradable plastic—can win big points with consumers.

Make Products Easy to Repair

In the past, electronics manufacturers have sometimes acted like the point of sale was the end of the product lifecycle. And consumers assumed that once a product stopped working, it was time to throw it out and get a new one. Not anymore. “Disposable” is no longer a selling point, and for many consumers these days, repairability is a critical concern. 

This “right to repair” mindset is driven by two factors. First, most Americans believe that if they buy something, they should be able to do whatever they want with it—including fix it. Second, more consumers than ever take satisfaction in knowing that they’re not adding to their local landfill. They’d rather buy replacement parts from the original manufacturer than throw away the product.

Electronics companies can meet this demand by choosing a modular design in which the components are easy to access. Batteries that are easy to replace, for example, are high on consumers’ wish lists, as are repair manuals.

Riding the “right to repair” wave can require a shift in thinking. With this sales model, the company’s relationship to its customers is a long-term one. Like a car dealership, these manufacturers make money on the initial sale, and then garner subsequent revenue by supplying replacement parts and keeping the product in top shape.

By making greener choices at every stage of a product’s lifecycle, electronics manufacturers can create a product that passes muster with today’s environmentally conscious consumers.

Refurbish, Resell, Recycle

One of the best ways to generate goodwill among environmentally conscious customers is to offer a take-back program. Both Apple and Dell allow customers to trade in their old devices when they buy a new one. Consumers get a modest credit to put towards a new device, and the manufacturers get a product they can refurbish and sell at a profit.

But what about products that are too outdated to resell? In that case, it’s time to harvest the usable components. Some manufacturers are now partnering with e-waste recyclers, who open up electronics devices and extract the usable parts. Keyboards, screens, hard drives (wiped clean, of course), processors, memory units, and motherboards can all be given a second life in a new device. Selling these still-useful components can provide a significant revenue stream for the original manufacturer.

But to make the most of this type of recycling, the product needs to be designed up front with sustainability in mind. Making components easy to extract at the end of a product’s lifecycle will cut down on labor costs when it’s time to harvest and resell its components.

Use Design for Sustainability to Optimize Energy Efficiency

Another feature on consumer wish lists is energy efficiency. Consumers typically cite two main reasons for wanting this. On the practical side, electricity is expensive, and devices that gobble up energy may price themselves out of the market. But many consumers also have a more altruistic, if secondary, motive for seeking out energy-efficient devices: They’re aware of the environmental impact of high energy use.

According to a recent article in electronicsforu.com, global electricity demand is projected to increase by 30 percent in the decade ending in 2030. Many experts argue that this level of consumption is unsustainable. The general public is more aware of this than ever before, which is why they’re demanding more energy-efficient products.

To satisfy the consumer demand for more ecological—and economical—devices, today’s electronics manufacturers are choosing energy-efficient components like low-power processors and LED displays. And they’re making sure to choose highly efficient power supplies. Using components like these lets manufacturers rightly claim they’re protecting the environment—and helping customers save on their energy bills.

worker taking apart a computer
Take-back programs let you resell still-useful components and can provide a significant revenue stream.

Use DFS Principles to Reduce Packaging Waste

It’s official, consumers hate hard plastic packaging, so much so that there’s a name for this particular dislike. It’s called wrap rage, and it’s defined as the frustration one feels when trying to open a plastic clamshell or other hard plastic container. In 2006 and 2007, Consumer Reports even issued “Oyster Awards” to companies whose packaging was particularly hard to open. Although the award was meant to be a joke, it highlighted a serious problem: In 2006, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) estimated that injuries from plastic packaging resulted in approximately 6,000 emergency-room visits annually.

These days, however, hard plastic packaging is disliked for another reason as well—it isn’t biodegradable. Consumers have reported feeling guilty when they open a product that arrives “excessively packaged,” and it’s likely that some consumers are shying away from these overwrapped products.

Fortunately, the solution is simple. In the same way that products can be designed with sustainability in mind, so can packaging. This means minimizing the amount of material needed through thoughtful package design, and using customer-pleasing, easy-to-recycle material. Cardboard is always a reliable option. But now, in addition to this old standby, companies can choose from newer, highly biodegradable options like molded pulp, green cell foam, and even mushroom-based materials.

Getting the Most from Design for Sustainability

There are multiple ways to make any electronics device sustainable. It can be designed to use fewer chemicals and plastic. It can be made with recycled components and plastic, or organic versions of the traditional parts. These days, even semiconductors can be made using natural materials. Designing your products for easy reuse and recycling is another way to lower its carbon footprint. Even the type of packaging you use can make a big difference.

Few manufacturers can implement all of these sustainable techniques, but most can apply at least a few. This is why a thorough DFS review is critical. Getting a cost-benefit analysis of your sustainability options will let you know which changes in the manufacturing process will yield the most impact, at the lowest cost.

Your DFS, DFT, and DFM Partner

Are you looking for a manufacturing partner that can help you eliminate waste and pollution in your product’s lifecycle? A partner who can maximize the efficiency of both your product and your manufacturing process? At PRIDE Industries, our engineers are experts in streamlining product design for more sustainable and cost-effective manufacturing and end-of-life disposal. And our partner network of certified recyclers maximizes the recovery of useful material and ensures proper waste disposal.
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mushroom packaging
In addition to cardboard, biodegradable packaging options include molded pulp, green cell foam, and even mushroom-based materials.

It can take months to design a new product, followed by more months of testing and modifying prototypes. After spending so much time and effort, you want to make sure that your contract PCBA manufacturer can deliver the product you designed.

So when it comes time to vet the manufacturer who’s going to bring your product to life, how do you ensure that you get the quality and reliability your design deserves? And at a price point that makes sense?

Here are a few factors to keep in mind when you’re looking for a contract PCBA manufacturer.

Deep Expertise and Broad Experience

There are some basic capabilities that any contract manufacturer should have. At a minimum, the vendor you choose should have deep expertise in both surface-mount technology and through-hole manufacturing. And whether your product calls for using automated or manual tooling, your contractor should have experienced assemblers on staff who can expertly manufacture your cable or harness assembly to the highest technical standards.

The manufacturer should also have experience with a variety of design tools, including CAD and schematic capture software, so they can ensure the most accurate and efficient PCB design and layout, and even catch any issues that might affect product performance.

And of course, experience assembling boards for your particular type of product is a plus, whether your product is a medical device, a consumer gadget, or an ITAR-compliant aerospace component.

PCBA-Specific DFM Expertise

Any PCBA manufacturer you work with should offer a basic DFM (design for manufacturability) review at no cost. This type of review allows your contract manufacturer to design the most efficient assembly process, which can lower your materials and labor costs. For example, a DFM review may enable your contractor to recommend easily accessible standard pieces to replace expensive custom ones, or design an assembly process in which pieces are soldered by machine instead of by hand.

A competent manufacturer can also analyze your board design with the entire product lifecycle in mind. There may be minor modifications that can make your product more sustainable, or easier to recycle at the end of its life—so that you can recover and resell components for a secondary revenue stream.

Certifications, Registrations, and Compliance Experience

An easy way to get a sense of a manufacturer’s capabilities is to look at the certifications they hold. At a minimum, their facilities should be ISO 9001 certified. For added confidence—especially if your device is complex—make sure your provider has SMTA-certified SMT Process Engineers on staff. Depending on your industry, you’ll also want to check for specialty certifications and registrations, like ISO 13485 certification for medical devices, and ITAR registration for defense products. And if you are making a device for the aerospace and defense industry, then your contractor should be accustomed to working on sensitive and restricted products.

Finally, keep in mind that while certifications are important, they’re not enough by themselves to ensure that the manufacturer you’re vetting can deliver what you need. Experience is just as important.

Certifications are important, but they’re not enough to ensure that the manufacturer you’re vetting can deliver what you need. Experience is just as important.

DFT and Quality Control

To ensure a high percentage of viable product, your contract manufacturer should have a quality control program in place. QC starts with rigorous testing of prototypes before production, to make sure there are no performance or regulatory compliance issues. At this early stage, your contractor should also perform a DFT (design for testability) review and recommend small adjustments to ensure easy testing, like adding test points to the bottom of a PCB.

Once products are coming off the assembly line, testing should be conducted regularly to ensure quality standards are maintained and so reduce customer returns. Your manufacturer should use the latest in automated optical inspection (AOI) technology, along with 2D and 3D X-rays, to check for quality, durability, and reliability.

In addition to visual inspections, the manufacturer should also conduct component-level checks and in-circuit verification. This high level of scrutiny is required to detect minute defects, which is especially important for products that must meet stringent performance requirements, such as medical devices and goods destined for the aerospace and defense market.

While no manufacturer can guarantee that every product coming off the assembly line will be perfect, careful testing and stringent quality control measures should achieve first-pass yield rates well above expectations.

Data-Driven, Flexible, and Scalable Capacity

If you’re lucky, demand for your product will exceed your projections. But that kind of popularity won’t translate into sales if your contract manufacturer isn’t able to ramp up production in time to meet increased demand. To respond quickly to changes in demand, your manufacturer should have data analytics tools that can precisely forecast material needs, even for products with cyclical demand.

It’s crucial that the manufacturer you choose be nimble enough to handle small batches. But they should also have the capacity to increase production when needed. This means having ample facilities, a scalable workforce, and the engineering expertise on staff to modify or expand the assembly line quickly and efficiently.

Extensive Supply Network

One of the most important questions to ask when vetting potential manufacturers is: Can they source quality materials and components?

A contract PCBA manufacturer that has been in business for several years should have an extensive network of parts and material suppliers. This means that they can not only source the parts you need, but most likely buy them at a bulk discount that you may not be able to get on your own.

Having a contractor with multiple supplier contacts means production won’t shut down when one parts supplier runs out of a component you need. And if you need to modify your product, your manufacturer should be able to quickly source any new components.

Shipping and Warehousing Services

The ideal manufacturer can also offer forecasting and capacity planning, along with procurement and materials management services. Having all of these services available through one supplier lets you streamline warehousing and distribution, so you can control your inventory more accurately, ramp production up or down as needed, and manage inputs more efficiently.

A manufacturer that offers logistics services can also review your product design with packaging and shipping in mind, so that you end up with a finished product that’s robust enough to not require expensive packaging solutions. And real-time tracking is a must if you want to avoid costly product shortages or overstocks.

The interior of a warehouse holding electronics products
The ideal manufacturer can also offer forecasting and capacity planning, along with procurement and materials management services.

Customer Support and Communication

Communication is key to a good working relationship with your contract PCBA manufacturer. No matter how competent your contractor’s team is, if they don’t have clear communication protocols in place, you’ll have a hard time working with them.

For example, contract manufacturers that offer fully automated electronic data interchange (EDI) or web-based interfaces make it easy to implement urgent changes in product configurations or shipping parameters.

But beyond technological considerations lies the simple question: If you reach out to your manufacturing partner, how easy is it to get a hold of someone? The technology is only as responsive as the people using it, which is why it’s important to know what customer service protocols a manufacturer has in place before you contract with them.

What is their policy for responding to queries, for example? Within 24 hours? Within two hours? Will you have a dedicated customer service representative, someone whose name you know and can call whenever you need? Or will you be given a general number that will connect you to whoever happens to be available that day?

If your product is not very complex, customer service may be less of a consideration. But if you’re producing a sophisticated product, you can’t wait for answers to technical questions. And you shouldn’t have to.

PCBA Manufacturing Services You Can Rely On

Our flexible, customized PCBA manufacturing is supported by highly skilled staff and driven by a commitment to quality that extends to all the services we offer. From streamlining product designs for greater efficiency, to high-precision manufacturing, to end-of-life product management, our team can help you get the most from your product’s lifecycle.
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Communication is key to a good working relationship with your contract PCBA manufacturer.

Did shortages of semiconductors and electronic components cause problems for your company in 2022? How have you managed these supply chain issues in 2023? In an opinion piece that appeared in Circuitnet, Andrew Williams, Engineering Manager at PRIDE Industries, explains how design for manufacturability (DFM) can help electronics companies overcome these challenges. 

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PRIDE Industries Andy Williams
Andrew Williams, PRIDE Industries' Engineering Manager for Electronics Manufacturing

There are several factors that companies typically consider when vetting a potential supplier of electronics manufacturing services (EMS), including: the supplier’s production capacity, the sophistication of its distribution and tracking systems, and its network of component suppliers. But if you want to get the most out of your EMS provider, you would do well to consider one other factor—the experience of the provider’s manufacturing engineers.

Partnering with an EMS provider that has its own engineering team will allow your company to temporarily expand its engineering resources. Doing so yields four significant advantages, allowing your company to:

  1. Save money
  2. Save time
  3. Modify products quickly
  4. Navigate supply chain disruptions quickly

The main reason you want your EMS provider to have qualified engineers is to boost your company’s engineering expertise. Maybe your latest product is a little outside your wheelhouse, but you don’t want to hire internal expertise just for that product. Maybe designing your product is taking longer than you expected, and you need a fresh pair of engineering eyes on it. Or maybe you’re busy with other projects and can’t give this product the engineering attention it deserves.

In each of these instances, it makes sense to bring on additional expertise. Because the engineers at your EMS provider work on multiple projects, they’ve likely already dealt with whatever challenges you’re facing. They have experience across an array of industries and know a few tricks from other products that can help ensure your product’s success.

As we move into the era of the smart factory, the engineering team your EMS provider offers will become more important to the success of your product.

How an EMS Provider’s Manufacturing Engineers Can Save You Time and Money

Perhaps the most important reason to tap the expertise of your provider’s engineers is to make sure that your product’s design is as functional and cost-effective as possible. That means looking beyond the product itself and scrutinizing every step of the manufacturing process.

While raw materials can be expensive, much of your product’s cost comes from labor. That’s why a review of your product’s prototype—through a DFM (design for manufacturability) lens—can yield significant savings in the long term.

An experienced engineer, one that has helped develop hundreds of products, can help you optimize your product’s design so that it can be made as quickly and inexpensively as possible, without sacrificing performance or quality. These engineers know how to streamline both machine and hand-processed operations and can ensure compliance with regulations. And if your design uses custom components, your provider’s engineers may be able to recommend less expensive, off-the-shelf substitutes.

A DFM review is especially important now that supply chains aren’t as predictable as they once were. In short, scrutinizing your product design with manufacturability in mind:

  • Offers greater product consistency through optimized processes
  • Lowers product loss by reducing the level of non-conforming products
  • Ensures a high-quality product
  • Lowers per-unit cost
  • Reduces turnaround time for orders
  • Can provide greater sustainability
  • Can improve rework-ability
  • Increases end-user satisfaction

Working with electronics engineers who have deep manufacturing experience ensures that your product’s manufacture will be as efficient as possible. A strong EMS provider should be able to review your data package and create the fastest, least labor-intensive process. These engineers can help you simplify your bill of materials, clean up your manufacturing line, and leverage technology.

Manufacturing Engineers Offer Expertise in Multiple Areas

While DFM is of primary importance, there are other issues to keep in mind when it comes to your product’s design. An experienced engineer can help you create a product design that enables easy testing—ensuring high quality and saving you money down the manufacturing line.

And if you have to modify an existing product’s design—perhaps to account for changing consumer demands—working with your manufacturer’s engineers will let you update your design in a way that minimizes the changes needed to the manufacturing process.

Is sustainability a priority for your company? Experienced contract manufacturing engineers are used to planning the entire lifecycle of the product. They can help you design products that use less electricity, for example, or that use lower VOC conformal coatings. They can also make it easier to extract useful components for resale at the end of the product’s lifecycle—an increasingly popular secondary revenue stream for electronics manufacturers.

Engineering Expertise is No Longer a Luxury

As manufacturing processes become more complex, and we move into the era of the smart factory, the engineering team your EMS provider offers will become more important to the success of your product. Greater automation means greater complexity. An engineer can help design a manufacturing process that leverages the latest technology, like the Industrial Internet of Things, autonomous robots, AI, and advanced materials. Engineers know how to interpret the data gathered from the IIoT, and can move quickly to optimize the manufacturing process to maximize efficiency.

But no matter how simple or complex your product is, your EMS provider’s engineers should listen to you. Their priority should be to design a process that helps you achieve your priorities, whether performance, sustainability, or cost. A strong engineering team will be able to help you balance your priorities so that you can achieve your manufacturing goals.

engineer holding electrical component
A DFM review is especially important now that supply chains aren’t as predictable as they once were.

Choosing an Engineering Team You Can Work With

To make sure your EMS provider has the skill set to truly help you, check to see if they have earned appropriate certifications related to your needs. For example, do their team members have SMT Process Engineer certification from SMTA? This elite certification signifies that the engineer you are working with can ensure that your complex PCB assembly fits with the best manufacturing process. SMTA certification also means that your contract engineers know how to modify product designs when requirements change and can resolve production issues quickly.

SMTA-certified engineers are also able to clearly explain design constraints and tradeoffs, making it easy for you to determine which product features are cost-effective and which won’t pay for themselves.

How to Work with Your Contract Engineering Team

Once you have chosen a contract EMS provider with the expertise you need, how do you work with their engineers to get the most from the partnership? Here are a few points to keep in mind to maximize your return:

  • You should keep DFM in mind from the beginning. But it is good to run a DFM check, even in later stages of the design process, to make sure nothing was missed. So have your EMS provider’s engineers do a thorough DFM review of your final prototype—especially if this is the first time they are seeing your product.
  • Experienced engineers have tested hundreds of products. Leverage that expertise by having them help develop the testing procedures for your device.
  • Likewise, use your contract engineers to help define the requirements for manufacturing process steps.
  • Make clear in your agreement how you plan to work with your contract engineering team. At which stages of design and development will you be bringing them in? Clarifying this up front will improve communication and help avoid delays.
  • If your contract manufacturer’s engineers will be working closely with your engineering team, be sure to spell out in your agreement who owns the information once the project is finished. It is highly unusual for an EMS provider to assert any ownership of a project they worked on for a customer, but it is always better to be safe than sorry.

Following these simple rules will ensure a strong working partnership between your company’s engineers and your supplier’s engineering team. And building a partnership brings advantages that are as significant as they are hard to measure. After all, a supplier merely delivers a service. But a partner looks out for your interests.

Electronics Design and Manufacturing Services

Our flexible, customized electronics manufacturing is supported by highly skilled, SMTA-certified engineers and driven by a commitment to quality and exceptional customer service. From streamlining product designs for greater efficiency, to high-precision manufacturing, to end-of-life product management, our team can help you get the most from your product’s lifecycle.
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SMTA Logo
SMTA-certified engineers are able to clearly explain design constraints and tradeoffs.

Electronics manufacturing has undergone multiple changes over the past few decades. Technologies like 3D printing, computer-aided design, and the Industrial Internet of Things (IIOT) have changed the factory floor considerably in just the past twenty years. But in many ways, the factory still resembles its 20th-century predecessor. That may be about to change, however, because a confluence of new technologies is coming together to create a whole new way to make electronics—by manufacturing in space.

The History of Space-Based Manufacturing

Even though it will be years before we see commercial manufacturing in space, researchers and corporate executives have been planning for space-based manufacturing since the sixties. In a way, these visionaries have been waiting for technology to catch up to their aspirations, and that’s finally happening.

Computing power, for example, has grown exponentially since the mid-20th century, leading to advances in AI, robotics, and communications. In addition, launch costs have fallen over the past few decades, and the trend is continuing. There are still a few technological roadblocks to overcome, but as a recent McKinsey analysis points out, we are nearing the point at which space-based R&D and manufacturing become a reality.

Why Manufacture in Space?

For the aerospace and defense industries, the advantages of manufacturing and assembling products in space are obvious. Space shuttles and other structures, such as labs, can take on diverse shapes if they don’t have to be launched from Earth’s surface. They can be made of thinner material as well. And they can be much bigger than anything that’s been built before.

Already, China is investigating a proposal to create ultra-large spacecraft that are half a mile long. These behemoths would be too large and too heavy to launch from Earth’s surface. Instead, the ship’s components would be sent up into space in a series of launches, and then the pieces would be assembled in orbit—like giant space Legos.

But creating large ships and space stations is just the beginning. Organizations like NASA want to do more than merely assemble components in space.

While it will take years to have factories in space, the benefits of these manufacturing innovations will be here a lot sooner.

International Space Station with Earth in background
Advanced materials manufacturing is already being carried out on the International Space Station.

Make It, Don’t Take It!

NASA officials have concluded that in order to undertake long-duration exploration missions, they must adopt a new paradigm for the construction and maintenance of space architectures. Their catchphrase for this new approach is “Make it, don’t take it.” The goal is to develop processes that allow for the on-demand fabrication and repair of critical systems and habitats. This would not only lower launch costs, but also reduce risks (and expenses) by decreasing the reliance on spare parts and lessening the need for component redundancy.

To that end, NASA is supporting the development of technologies that further its in-space manufacturing (ISM) initiative. These technologies include Zero-G 3D printers and recyclers, both of which have applications in electronics manufacturing. The agency’s multi-material FabLab, for example, is currently developing an additive process for 3D printing a variety of metals. NASA’s goal is to enable the manufacturing of critical components—including embedded electronics—that make long-duration space missions possible.

Another essential for long-duration space flights is the ability to recycle and refabricate materials. One of NASA’s solutions to this challenge is ERASMUS, a next-generation device that integrates a 3D printer with a recycler and a sterilizer to create a closed-loop system that turns plastic waste into food- and medical-grade filaments. These filaments can then be fed to a 3D printer to create plastic implements for a variety of purposes.

Once these technologies are fully developed, they will not only enable exploratory missions to reach deeper into space than ever before, they’ll also make the manufacturing and recycling of commercial electronics on earth more efficient and less expensive.

Made in Space

For the near future, NASA’s push for space-based manufacturing will benefit electronics companies only tangentially, by developing sophisticated new technologies that can be leveraged here on Earth. But eventually, electronics manufacturers will be able to reap the benefits of space more directly, by conducting research and development in sterile, microgravity environments—and possibly even manufacturing products there.

Companies hoping to one day conduct research or manufacturing in space have found a strong ally in NASA, which has doled out nearly $40 million in seed money to enable companies and research institutions to develop new technologies. The space agency has been up front about its desire to develop a robust economy in low-Earth orbit (LEO), and sees itself as both an investor and a future customer of the companies it helps fund.

The semiconductor industry is of particular interest to NASA, which of course benefits from smaller, faster processors.

Why Manufacture Semiconductors in Space?

Space offers a unique environment for research and manufacturing. Perhaps the most useful aspect of this environment—especially for semiconductor manufacturing—is microgravity. The near weightlessness of low-Earth orbits is ideal for chip manufacturing.

Right now, semiconductor chips are made in highly sanitized clean rooms, because even microscopic specks of dust can ruin a chip. Keeping these rooms clean requires expensive protocols and equipment—sophisticated filtration systems, multiple exhaust structures, static dissipative materials, and climate control equipment.

But in microgravity, specks of dust don’t “fall” onto chips. That’s one reason why a clean room in space would be easier to operate. Another reason is the natural vacuum of space. Researchers are now working on ways to leverage this natural vacuum to reduce or eliminate the gases that are generated during chip production. An innovation in this area could lead to more efficient layering techniques—both in space and on Earth—which would lead to smaller, faster chips.

Recycling: A Key to Manufacturing in Space

One of the roadblocks to manufacturing in space is the need to bring equipment and raw materials into low-Earth orbit—an expensive proposition. Fortunately, there are startup companies already tackling this problem, including a new business in Davis, California. Build Beyond LLC, a seed-stage startup, has created a device that can harvest metal from the space junk orbiting above us, and then recycle that metal to make new structures.

The device works on steel, aluminum, and other metals. It uses magnets to capture, move, and melt the material. Eventually, it will also be able to mold the metal into new shapes. The goal is to create an inductive foundry in space, one that can produce rods, plates, struts, and other components.

Space Technology Brings Manufacturing Solutions to Earth

As with so many technologies developed for space, Build Beyond’s device has potential applications here on Earth. Because inductive welding doesn’t create sparks, this technology could be used for welding or mending cracks in pipelines, large containers, and railroad cars. And because the device is designed to work autonomously, it can make dangerous repairs remotely—a real boon for worker safety.

The Davis startup’s recycling system is a prime example of where space-based manufacturing is right now—at the very beginning. And though these new technologies are being developed to operate in low-Earth orbit, their initial applications will probably be rolled out here on the ground. So while it may take decades to have factories in space, the benefits of these manufacturing innovations will be here a lot sooner.

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