Digital Manufacturing and Design Leading to Greater Manufacturing Innovation

Once upon a time, circuit design and circuit assembly were done by hand, a time consuming process that could eat up project dollars and sometimes lead to design or manufacturing flaws. But a lot has changed in the electronics manufacturing industry, even in the last ten years, and these changes are now providing new opportunities for design engineering innovation, product design flexibility, and big savings in time and production costs.

Digital manufacturing and design are possible because many different factors have come together to lift up the industry as a whole. Manufacturing materials continue to advance while new technologies and equipment enter the field to assist with design, simulation, and production.

3D CAD software alone has changed the face of the electronics industry forever. Here at ControlTek, our Design Engineering team uses the OrCAD Circuit Design software to create (and capture!) design schematics for future use and professional level documentation. We can then provide that documentation to customers to offer them a higher level of flexibility, so they can choose any contract manufacturer they like without losing any important data.

Circuit simulation is another digital manufacturing technique that has brought huge improvements to the electronics manufacturing industry. Circuit simulation allows design engineers to verify their designs before anything is built. This allows us to test out design concepts quickly so we can pass that time savings on to our customers and bring their products to market faster.

These improvements allow design and product engineers greater flexibility in design and new opportunities for innovation of finished products while also greatly reducing any potential design errors. Some of the simulations done at ControlTek include thermal simulation, which tests components and assemblies to ensure they perform properly within expected temperature ranges, and air flow simulation, which tests to ensure the flow of air through the circuit will be sufficient and not cause adverse temperature changes.

Learn more about ControlTek’s digital design and simulation testing.