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Online 3D Printing Store Launched by Scalar Manufacturing

3/1/2016

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Sacramento, CA, March 1, 2016 - Scalar Manufacturing is excited to announce the launch of its new sister company, Scalar Prints 3D.  Scalar Prints 3D, or Sp3d, uses 3D printing technology to provide fast, inexpensive plastics for proofs of concepts, scale models, and functional prototypes.
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Equipped with PLA and ABS capabilities, Sp3d offers instant online quoting of parts up to 150 cubic inches in volume—and over 10,000 cubic inches through custom quotes.  Sp3d is currently located in Midtown Sacramento, California, with plans to soon expand to a larger facility.  Scalar Manufacturing's investment in Sp3d puts an exclamation point on the amount of growth that additive manufacturing has seen over the past two years.

Sp3d continues Scalar Manufacturing’s goal of increasing the magnitude of their customers’ production needs without changing the direction necessary to bring the designers’ ideas to life.  Upholding the same personable service as Scalar Manufacturing, Sp3d also offers direct communication with the engineering teams, but adds easy to use online services, making the production process as quick and easy as possible. Leadtimes as fast as one day are available only with Scalar Prints 3D’s Quick-Turn Special.

For designers interested in using a die casting or injection molding process, 3D printing allow them to create prototypes of their design concepts prior to creating their final products. 3D printing provides a low-cost way of experimenting with design ideas or even remanufacturing obsolete components.  For those customers ready to progress to a molding process for higher volume, Scalar Prints 3D’s connection to Scalar Manufacturing allows that transition to be seamless.
 
Visit www.sp3d.us to explore Sp3d's online services.

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Bay Area Circuits Introduces Customer Loyalty Program

9/23/2015

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Silicon Valley, CA, September 22, 2015 – Bay Area Circuits, Inc., a leading quick-turn manufacturer of printed circuit boards (PCBs), has launched the PCB industry’s first reward program, providing customers with substantial savings on printed circuit board orders placed through the Bay Area Circuits online store. With every qualifying purchase, customers will earn rewards points that can be used for savings on future purchases.

"The launch of this rewards program marks another effort to better serve our loyal customers and thank them for using our quick turn prototyping services." said Stephen Garcia, President of Bay Area Circuits.

Points are awarded to each customer who enrolls in the program and customers earn an additional reward point for every dollar spent. Customers are also able to provide 10% discount codes to friends and in turn, receive reward points when that friend completes their first purchase. Accumulated reward points can then be used to receive discounts on future purchases.

Scalar Manufacturing is a representative of Bay Area Circuits.  The companies have an unusually close relationship as Matthew LaBar, owner of Scalar Manufacturing, is an Account Manager for Bay Area Circuits.  While Scalar Manufacturing is not directly a part of Bay Area Circuits's loyalty program, Mr. LaBar's role as a Bay Area Circuits employee allows for seamless integration between Scalar Manufacturing products and Bay Area Circuits web products.


For more information on the Bay Area Circuits customer loyalty rewards program, visit store.bayareacircuits.com.

About Bay Area Circuits Inc.

Founded in 1975 by the late Lawrence Nobriga, Bay Area Circuits has been serving the PCB manufacturing needs of high-tech electronics manufacturers, contract assemblers and design engineers for 40 years. By focusing on quick-turn prototyping and production while leveraging innovative, high quality designs, Bay Area Circuits has become the premiere PCB supplier for discerning customers around the world.

For more information visit www.bayareacircuits.com.

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Our Three Favorite Things about Zinc

7/21/2015

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by Matthew LaBar, Technology Lead & Owner
Scalar Manufacturing offers zinc alloy casting services through Albco Foundry and Zhuhai Richsun. Zinc originally came to Scalar Manufacturing as a die cast metal, but the recent addition of Albco Foundry to our linecard has really made zinc a favorite material for us. These are the three main reasons we think zinc alloys are great:
Impressive Physical Properties
Zinc out-performs aluminum and bronze in nearly every category, including tensile and strengths, hardness, and elongation. In general, ZA-12 has comparable properties to cast iron. Zinc is non-sparking and resistant to corrosion, and its high density is advantageous in most applications. On occasion, zinc will be used instead of aluminum to specifically increase the weight of a device. In some applications, zinc's low melting point is a disadvantage, but we find that the melting point generally helps more than hurts.
Low Tool Cost
Because of zinc's low melting point, zinc alloys do less damage to their molds, allowing for a longer mold lifespan. Moreover, the low melting point allows the zinc alloys ZA-12 and ZA-8 to be used with a graphite mold. Graphite is both less expensive than steel (the typical mold material) and easier to machine, lowering cost from the beginning. In fact, graphite molds require so little maintenance you get a lifetime guarantee when purchasing from Albco Foundry. If your mold wears out, they replace it, no charge.*
Machines Easily after Near-Net Shape Casting
Zinc further reduces cost through machining. Zinc allows for near-net shape casting, then machines very easily for whatever machining is necessary. Cutting speeds increase and tool wear decreases when machining zinc, despite zinc's impressive strength and hardness. For example, ZA-12 machines three times easier than cast iron – even though zinc and cast iron otherwise have similar physical properties. Moreover, zinc alloys rarely require much machining anyway, because the ability to get near net-shape or net-shape castings.
Ready to get the great properties of zinc for your part?  Visit our castings page to learn more about our processes and get a quote.
*Conditions may apply, but for the most part the guarantee applies.  Ask at the time of your quote.
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Heavy Copper - Trace Width and Design Considerations

6/29/2015

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by Matthew LaBar, Technology Lead & Owner

Minimum line width is one of the first questions asked of a PCB manufacturer's capabilities, but the answer rarely includes “depending on copper weight.” This brief overview gives some near-universal rules for trace width versus copper weight, along with other important considerations when using heavy copper.

Copper Weight and Trace Width
During etching, copper traces are only protected from the top by either a dry film or a tin plate, meaning that as copper is etched away, the sides of the trace are also etched (in other words, etching is an isotropic process). There are two main results of the isotropic etching – first, thick copper requires wider trace and space, and second, traces finish with a trapezoidal shape. Until anisotropic etching research is completed, below are some current guidelines for trace width versus copper weight:


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The 5 Best Electronic "Toys" of 2015

2/25/2015

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by Nate Glab, Engineering and Marketing Consultant

Let's face it - electronics have allowed adults to continue enjoying toys.  With 2015 well underway and CES long in the books, it's time to take a look at the best new toys in the early part of the year.

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Bay Area Circuits First to Order Gryphon - The 3D Functional Inkjet Technology System

2/3/2015

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MIGDAL HAEMEK, Israel – February 2nd, 2015– Camtek Ltd. announced that it has received a conditional purchase order from Bay Area Circuits Inc. for a Gryphon system.  The system is already operating in a production environment at Bay Area Circuits.  As a representative of Bay Area Circuits, Scalar Manufacturing is excited to pass on the benefits of Gryphon's printing technology to its customers.

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Ensuring Your Design is Ready for Production

1/26/2015

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by Matthew LaBar, Scalar Manufacturing Owner

To avoid those “little issues” that always seem to come up right before production, many companies follow a 3-phase prototyping process. The goal is to separate prototyping, rigorous testing, and manufacturing. Design issues will be cleaned well before production, and any potential production issues can be fixed in isolation. Here are the three phases, each one a type of verification test.

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How 3D Printing is Changing the Medical World

1/14/2015

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by Nate Glab, Engineering and Marketing Consultant

About a year ago, my father had a sudden and unexpected scare with cardiac failure. A main artery was 99% blocked at a fork into two smaller arteries, requiring a custom stent. Thanks to 3D printing, his successful surgery may be one of the last of its kind. With 3D printing, all stents may soon be custom – completely customized to fit the patient's arteries.

In fact, researchers at the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center are already working on ways to 3D print a stent that “perfectly fits the interior contours of [each] particular patient's airways.” Researchers believe that 3D printing will be faster, cheaper, and ultimately translate into better healthcare.

One major obstacle has already presented itself—3D printers cannot print in silicone, the material that stents are made of. Researchers have overcome this issue by instead 3D printing the mold that the silicone will be injected into to create the finished stent. I will be watching closely as 3D printed stents may become a universal norm in the next few years.

Few people could have predicted the impact that 3D printing has already had on health and medicine. More than just stents, there are many unbelievably innovative ways 3D printing has been applied to create new techniques in the medical industry. We can now print tiny replica hearts that are nearly identical to those of a baby's heart. For babies with congenital heart defects, this new capability has helped surgeons "plan where to cut tissue, reroute piping and patch holes” in one of the most risky surgeries.

In one such case, a replica heart revealed hidden holes in one child's heart. Prior to 3D printing, the typical MRI scans were difficult to interpret. Now those same scans are being 3D printed, and therefore than can be held and viewed more easily – as though they were holding the actual heart.

But, undoubtedly, the most incredulous potential application for 3D printing in medicine, arises from the notion that it may be possible to print organ tissue. 3D printing actual human organs for human transplant, although years away, could someday be a reality. There has already been some success in bioprinting. Last year a 2-year-old girl, who was born without a trachea, received a windpipe built completely from her own stem cells.

To accelerate the development of bioprinted organs, a Virginia foundation that supports regenerative medicine research announced in December it will award a $1 million prize for the first organization to print a fully functioning liver.

My father's surgery was completed beautifully, and he was back on his feet, playing hockey and cycling in under a week. Although we are more than satisfied with his current stent, he may be among the last humans ever who will have a stent not made specifically for his arteries. Within a few years, the entire procedure may be obsolete – 3D printing is transforming stent design, MRI technology, and even human tissues themselves.

Nate Glab is an electrical engineer specializing in energy conversion and biomedical devices.  Initially brought to Scalar Manufacturing for his sales and marketing talents, his work has grown to reflect his passion for personal biomedical devices, educational electronics, and moving the electronics industry into the future.  He currently consults for several companies in fields as diverse as sales, engineering, and quality assurance.
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Three Reasons Startups are More Exciting than Ever

1/6/2015

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by Nate Glab, Engineering and Marketing Consultant

The electronics startup craze has continued to grow and continued to become more exciting. So exciting that I'm blogging about the craze, something I thought I would never do. I've read all about new ideas being fully conceived as consumer products, and now my goal is to summarize and give our readers tons of links. Today, I want to start with the three biggest reasons I'm excited about the future of electronic startups.

1. The Numbers
One of my favorite websites, phys.org, released an article last year showing some statistics for startups at CES. The CES startup area, Eureka Park, grew by 40% from 2013 to 2014, and CES even created a new startup area called Eureka Park: NEXT. While Eureka Park: NEXT does not appear to be coming back for 2015, Eureka Park is expected to be up by a whopping 80% this year!

An article last week revealed another reason startups are exciting – employees get paid more. What? Yes, this is true. The gender gap at startups is quite disappointing (in fact Matthew promised a blog after seeing that statistic), but I like that you can get paid more by taking a chance on your ideas.

2. Crowdfunding

Crowdfunding has become a hugely successful way to figure out what kind of popularity your idea might have, even before you sink any amount of money. Best of all, the consumers are “voting” with real money, money that can be used to fully realize the product. It's a beautiful thing to see, how some good ideas grow into great ones through their crowdfunding campaigns.

Kickstarter and Indiegogo are probably best-known, but they are not the only crowdfunding sites out there. Now we are seeing sites geared specifically to help fund consumer electronics, such as Dragon Innovation. I will be following Dragon Innovation closely, and articles like this one and this one show that I am not the only one.

3. 3D Printing

3D printing has made prototyping much easier and thus totally changed the startup game. Instead of waiting weeks for a plastic injection mold to verify your design, you can get your design overnight on your own 3D printer, which only costs a few hundred dollars. Or you can send out for 3D printing for less than a hundred dollars and get a very high-quality prototype. People are building actual prototypes in their bedrooms, and from there driving the startup craze.

So hopefully my goal to redistribute interesting electronics articles is off to a good start, and I plan to go into greater detail about each of these. Right now my favorite topics are consumer, medical, and educational electronics. The increased benefits of 3D printing are such an important component to all of those fields that you will see much more 3D printing from me. Most of all, keep checking back for more links and more exciting news in the world of electronics.

Nate Glab is an electrical engineer specializing in energy conversion and biomedical devices.  Initially brought to Scalar Manufacturing for his sales and marketing talents, his work has grown to reflect his passion for personal biomedical devices, educational electronics, and moving the electronics industry into the future.  He currently consults for several companies in fields as diverse as sales, engineering, and quality assurance.
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Cable Assembler Simco NJ Signs Scalar Manufacturing for California

10/1/2014

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Los Angeles, California - Simco NJ, Inc. and Scalar Manufacturing have agreed to a representation agreement giving Scalar Manufacturing coverage of California.  The Blackwood, New Jersey company specializes in wire harnesses, cable assemblies, and box builds.
One particular advantage of Simco is their quality management system (QMS).  Quality begins with Simco's proprietary Interlink Job Shop software and is punctuated by IPC / WHMA-A-620 inspection standards - with two IPC trainers on-site.  Simco is also the only American cable assembler allowed to print UL labels on-site.  ISO 9001:2008 certification was completed in only 2 months because the QMS was and is more robust than the ISO standard.  While no further certifications are planned, Simco, Scalar Manufacturing, and various other auditors have agreed that Simco could earn ITAR, AS9100, TS16949, or ISO 13485 certifications with little to no modification of the existing QMS.
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One of Simco's most recognized products.  If you've ever taken a ride on an Amtrak train, you may have seen these panels. At each end of each railway car, these panels control all the doors used to enter/exit the railway car. They also control the suspension so that the railway car meets the platform at an even height.  For more Simco products, visit https://www.flickr.com/simconj
While electro-mechanical assemblies and box builds are not new to Scalar Manufacturing, Simco's emphasis on wire harness and cable assembly adds an important dynamic to Scalar Manufacturing's services.  Not all electrical applications require printed circuit boards - and not all electrical applications require complex cable assembly - and so the addition of Simco fills that gap for Scalar Manufacturing customers.  Moreover, Simco's focus on quality and traceability and their ability to scale from prototype quantities to very high volumes fit well with Scalar Manufacturing's goal of meeting any customer's product "velocity," high volume or low, simple or complex.

Scalar Manufacturing is excited to add Simco as an option for its customers.  Simco's emphasis on quality will surely make them a Scalar Manufacturing partner for many years to come.  To learn more about Simco, visit http://simconj.com/.

Note: A previous version of this article incorrectly stated that Simco gained ISO 9001 certification in 3 months.  In fact, Simco gained ISO 9001 certification in 2 months.
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    The Bloggers

    Matthew LaBar
    Technology Lead & Owner

    View my profile on LinkedIn
    After second-majoring in English for no reason but that he liked reading, Mr. LaBar suddenly began writing all the time when he founded Scalar Manufacturing five years later.  His expertise in PCB manufacture makes boards a favorite topic of his, alongside his true passion of turning ideas into reality.
    Nate Glab
    Engineering and Marketing Consultant
    Mr. Glab holds an electrical engineering degree from the University of Colorado, Boulder, alongside his natural blogging savvy.  His blogs reflect his interest in personal biomedical devices and electronics for education, and his goal of moving those fields forward.
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