EMS Directory Adds a PCB Fabrication Category

PCB fabrication and PCB assembly are different businesses. Fabricators make the bare board, from laminate and copper to plated holes. Assemblers populate it with components. Until recently, bare-board specialists had no proper home on EMS Directory, so buyers had to hunt for them among assembly listings.

EMS Directory now has a dedicated PCB Fabrication category, with 36 UK companies at launch. Ten are newly added, and 26 existing listings were reviewed one by one and tagged only where the company shows real bare-board manufacturing capability.

This EMS Directory update explains what changed, how the companies were checked, and what to compare between fabricators: layer count, board material and surface finish.

Why it matters: when the bare board and the assembly come from different suppliers, quality problems can fall between them. Getting both choices right, and making sure the two suppliers work to the same requirements, is part of the supplier selection work Grindstone Consultancy does.