UK PCB Fabrication

[Ian Bell]

I am just having some PCBs made here in the UK using Tecbridge Circuits

http://www.tecbridgecircuits.co.uk/

Never used them before but their on line calculator gives pretty much
the best prices I have seen in Europe without the hassle of exchange
rates. I uploaded the files and emailed an order this afternoon. A
couple of hours later I got a phone from them with a couple of minor
technical queries and my order was placed - and they'll start work
before I have even paid.

They use, and in fact prefer, files created with FreePCB which is great.
So far, customer service has been excellent. I'll let you know what
the boards are like when I get them.


Cheers

Ian

 

[Raveninghorde]

I am just having some PCBs made here in the UK using Tecbridge Circuits

http://www.tecbridgecircuits.co.uk/

Never used them before but their on line calculator gives pretty much
the best prices I have seen in Europe without the hassle of exchange
rates. I uploaded the files and emailed an order this afternoon. A
couple of hours later I got a phone from them with a couple of minor
technical queries and my order was placed - and they'll start work
before I have even paid.

They use, and in fact prefer, files created with FreePCB which is great.
So far, customer service has been excellent. I'll let you know what
the boards are like when I get them.


Cheers

Ian

Not that cheap. Just tried the calculator and got a price of £1.19
1000 up compared to $1.07, inc freight, direct from China. That's
£1.19 compared to £0.65 or £540 more on the order. That buys a lot of
beers and more than covers any hassle.

The delivery is quicker by about a week allowing for transit time.

 

[Ian Bell]

Not that cheap. Just tried the calculator and got a price of £1.19
1000 up compared to $1.07, inc freight, direct from China. That's
£1.19 compared to £0.65 or £540 more on the order. That buys a lot of
beers and more than covers any hassle.

The delivery is quicker by about a week allowing for transit time.

Ah, well, perhaps I should have been more specific and said for
prototype/modest quantities. My quotes were for 20-off and Tecbridge
were cheaper by far than any of the other UK/European places I tried.


For 1000 up I think I would be looking elsewhere too.


Cheers

Ian

 

[Ian Bell]

PCBCART (as one example) are reasonably decent prices for small quantity, and
scarily good for real quantity. And as an added bonus (for some) they accept
Paypal.

I checked out my board on their site and their base prices certainly are
cheap but by the time you add freight, duty and VAT they are less
attractive for small quantities. Also there are half a dozen different
freight options to choose from (and I have no idea of their relative
costs/times) and at the end of the day if something goes wrong you are
dealing with someone thousands of miles away whose first language is not
English. For small quantities I would rather use a UK supplier but as I
said before, for 1000 up I would definitely widen my horizons.

Tecbridge, by the way, accept Paypal.

P.S. to Raveninghorde: there's a note on the Tecbridge web site to
contact them if you quantities are over 1000 becuase they may be able to
give you a 'special price'. Presumably things are somewhat more
negotiable at that volume.

Cheers

Ian

 

[Ian Bell]

They always mark small qtys ( less than a couple of kilos) as sample NCV - I've only been invoiced
VAT/duty form the carrier on large orders (tens of square feet) from them.

That makes a nice change. I got some boards from ExpressPCB in the USA
and they marked them at the full price including freight so I ended up
paying a shed load of VAT plus a handling charge. Bloody annoying.

Cheers

Ian

 

[Ian Bell]

What makes you think they are made in the UK?

From the website : "We work closely with domestic partners in China to source printed circuit boards
"....

From their contact details it looks like just a UK office acting as a broker.

Indeed you are right. I was more concerned to be dealing with someone in
the UK than outside it.

For real UK made PCBs on fast turnround I use www.screenbond.co.uk
Compared to other UK places I've used, their photo costs are very low (typically £40/order) , and no
other setup/tooling costs.

I am not concerned with fast turnaround but it is interesting to see
screenbond is in Baldock, my old stomping ground. I see they only do
single and double sided PCBs but for me that is no problem. I have input
my board details and asked them for a quote. Thanks for the link.


Cheers

Ian

 

[Ian Bell]

I checked against a 4 layer board that I just ordered from PCBTrain and
TecBridge were way off on 5 day delivery (more than twice the price !!).
Standard design rules are not quite as good either.

Michael Kellett

Seems there is considerable variation between suppliers for the same
board. I put my 2 layer board into PCBTrain and Tecbridge, 20-off on 10
day turnaround. PCBTrain is £270, Tecbridge £140. Go figure.

Cheers

Ian

 

[TheM]

That makes a nice change. I got some boards from ExpressPCB in the USA and they marked them at the full price including freight so
I ended up paying a shed load of VAT plus a handling charge. Bloody annoying.

Cheers
Ian

That's how the big companies work. Mind you, it is illegal to falsely mark a package
to be worth less, plus insurance value in case it gets lost is smaller and they have to
absorb the difference.

Also charging import tax and vat on top of everything (including shipping) is pretty
standard everywhere.

It is "annoying" though, agreed

M

 

[John Devereux]

That's how the big companies work. Mind you, it is illegal to falsely mark a package
to be worth less, plus insurance value in case it gets lost is smaller and they have to
absorb the difference.

I suppose for low quantities most of the value is in tooling and
processing charges, which are never actually shipped. So the customs
invoice could be just the material costs ultimately

Also charging import tax and vat on top of everything (including
shipping) is pretty standard everywhere.


It is "annoying" though, agreed

UPS are the absolute worst in my experience. The actual customs charges
are generally negligible compared to their "processing" fees.

 

[nospam]

Seems there is considerable variation between suppliers for the same
board. I put my 2 layer board into PCBTrain and Tecbridge, 20-off on 10
day turnaround. PCBTrain is £270, Tecbridge £140. Go figure.

PCBTrain (and a few others) combine multiple jobs on large panels which
means several customers share setup and processing costs.

Tecbridge have the boards made in China which means everything is cheap but
they do not attempt to share costs and there is extra time and expense
required to ship from China.

PCBTrain is cheaper on small quantities and faster turn round.
--

 

[Ian Bell]

That's how the big companies work. Mind you, it is illegal to falsely mark a package
to be worth less, plus insurance value in case it gets lost is smaller and they have to
absorb the difference.

Also charging import tax and vat on top of everything (including shipping) is pretty
standard everywhere.

It is "annoying" though, agreed

M

The other thing is I have noticed this seems to have been invoked
without fail in the last 12 months. Before that, stuff I got from the
USA was just delivered without duty/VAT being charged. Maybe the
recession has made them keener to collect their 'handling' charge' -
last one I had was £8 to collect £10 of VAT.

The rules about when charges are made have been changed recently too;
don't know if that is a factor.

Cheers

Ian

 

[Jim Thompson]

The other thing is I have noticed this seems to have been invoked
without fail in the last 12 months. Before that, stuff I got from the
USA was just delivered without duty/VAT being charged. Maybe the
recession has made them keener to collect their 'handling' charge' -
last one I had was £8 to collect £10 of VAT.

The rules about when charges are made have been changed recently too;
don't know if that is a factor.

Cheers

Ian

I didn't get charged VAT on a recent software purchase from "over
there".

...Jim Thompson
--
| James E.Thompson, P.E. | mens |
| Analog Innovations, Inc. | et |
| Analog/Mixed-Signal ASIC's and Discrete Systems | manus |
| Phoenix, Arizona 85048 Skype: Contacts Only | |
| Voice480)460-2350 Fax: Available upon request | Brass Rat |
| E-mail Icon at http://www.analog-innovations.com | 1962 |

Democrats are like cats...
They'll take a dump behind your couch and then feign ignorance

 

[Ian Bell]

I didn't get charged VAT on a recent software purchase from "over
there".

...Jim Thompson

Was it sent by a company or an individual?? There seems to be different
rules for each.

Cheers

Ian

 

[Jim Thompson]

Was it sent by a company or an individual?? There seems to be different
rules for each.

Cheers

Ian

A Company

...Jim Thompson
--
| James E.Thompson, P.E. | mens |
| Analog Innovations, Inc. | et |
| Analog/Mixed-Signal ASIC's and Discrete Systems | manus |
| Phoenix, Arizona 85048 Skype: Contacts Only | |
| Voice480)460-2350 Fax: Available upon request | Brass Rat |
| E-mail Icon at http://www.analog-innovations.com | 1962 |

I love to cook with wine Sometimes I even put it in the food

 

[Raveninghorde]

Was it sent by a company or an individual?? There seems to be different
rules for each.

Cheers

Ian

If you are VAT registered in the UK and export from the UK, to Jim in
the US for example, you do not charge VAT. If you ship to another EU
country you do not charge VAT if the customer is VAT registered in
their own country and you record their VAT number, otherwise you
charge VAT.

If you are not VAT registered then of course you do not charge VAT and
individuals are not VAT registered.

 

[Spehro Pefhany]

A Company

...Jim Thompson

A shipment from a business in the EU to outside the EU should not have
VAT charged- to do otherwise would be fraudulent AFAIUI. That's the
whole point of VAT- to tax domestic consumption but not exports.

When something comes in, it generally should be charged VAT unless it
falls under their radar (or is in an exempt or zero-rated category).

In Canada at least, the international portion of shipping does not
attact any tax (eg. international air freight is not part of the
taxable value). If there is a separate charge to ship goods to (say)
dockside domestically in the country of origin, that would be taxed.
I don't think it's considered to be in the recipient country until it
is cleared through customs, so intermodal shipping, drayage and bonded
warehouse charges are not taxed.

It's kind of moot anyway, since under a VAT/GST most stuff for
business use, resale or for incorporation into goods for resale
attracts zero net tax and zero net duty (in our case, the 5% gets
rebated back as an input tax credit).



Best regards,
Spehro Pefhany

 

[Raveninghorde]

A shipment from a business in the EU to outside the EU should not have
VAT charged- to do otherwise would be fraudulent AFAIUI. That's the
whole point of VAT- to tax domestic consumption but not exports.

When something comes in, it generally should be charged VAT unless it
falls under their radar (or is in an exempt or zero-rated category).

In Canada at least, the international portion of shipping does not
attact any tax (eg. international air freight is not part of the
taxable value). If there is a separate charge to ship goods to (say)
dockside domestically in the country of origin, that would be taxed.
I don't think it's considered to be in the recipient country until it
is cleared through customs, so intermodal shipping, drayage and bonded
warehouse charges are not taxed.

Here shipping costs certainly form part of the cost for import duty. I
think it does for VAT as well but as a business I reclaim the VAT so
have never checked.

It's kind of moot anyway, since under a VAT/GST most stuff for
business use, resale or for incorporation into goods for resale
attracts zero net tax and zero net duty (in our case, the 5% gets
rebated back as an input tax credit).



Best regards,
Spehro Pefhany

In the UK you can reclaim VAT but not duty.

 

[Eeyore]

I am just having some PCBs made here in the UK using Tecbridge Circuits

http://www.tecbridgecircuits.co.uk/

Never used them before but their on line calculator gives pretty much
the best prices I have seen in Europe without the hassle of exchange
rates. I uploaded the files and emailed an order this afternoon. A
couple of hours later I got a phone from them with a couple of minor
technical queries and my order was placed - and they'll start work
before I have even paid.

They use, and in fact prefer, files created with FreePCB which is great.
So far, customer service has been excellent. I'll let you know what
the boards are like when I get them.

What do you use to generate the schematic and netlist ?

Graham

 

[Eeyore]

For real UK made PCBs on fast turnround I use www.screenbond.co.uk
Compared to other UK places I've used, their photo costs are very low (typically £40/order) , and no
other setup/tooling costs.

Yes, I've used Screenbond too , and not being far I can even collect the boards as soon as they're
ready.

Graham

 

[Spehro Pefhany]

In the UK you can reclaim VAT but not duty.

Same here, but VERY little in the way of normal electronics trade
attracts any duty at all.


For example, harmonized tariff item 8534.00.00..95 (PCBs of various
types) attract no duty at all for import into the US or Canada**.


** Okay there's a 35% duty rate the US imposes under "column 2", but
AFAIK, right now that only applies to PCBs made in Cuba or North Korea
(not really hotbeds of electronics manufacturing, though I suppose it
could complicate the use by South Korea, China or others of special
economic zones in North Korea to the extent that exports to the US
might be involved). A few (mostly communist and former communist)
countries have only conditional (annually renewed) MFN status under
the Vietnam-war era Jackson-Vanik legislation-- this kind of
discriminatory trade legislation is incompatible with WTO rules when
both parties are members so the list is slowly dwindling.


Best regards,
Spehro Pefhany