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.

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.

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.

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: