Do You Have a Daughter Who Is Interested in the STEM Fields?

Your middle school daughter still has six weeks left in the school year, but she is already talking about her class for summer school. Although you were surprised that she would be willing to be in a classroom during the month of July, she is the one who initiated the process. When she heard that one of the STEM classes offered in the summer would include the chance to learn about and practice circuit board assembly, she practically begged for your to sign her up. Being a parent who has always followed the Montessori philosophy of Follow the Child, you did as she asked. And while other parents are dreading what the summer months will bring, you know that circuit board assembly vocabulary and practice will fill many of your future summer days.
It should come as no surprise that many summer school STEM class offerings focus on circuit board assembly and the basics of how electric current works. Found in everything from our car key fobs to the television remote, printed circuit board assembly is part of nearly every part of our life. From using the toaster in the morning to shutting down a laptop at night before going to bed, the PCB fabrication and assembly process is an important part of our lives, and a simple way to get students interested in the fields of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics.
Consider some of these facts about circuit board assembly services:

• $44 billion is the revenue of circuit board and electronic component manufacturing in the U.S. in 2014.
• Most common multilayer boards are: 4 layers, 6 layers, 8 layers, and 10 layers. The total number of layers, however, that can be manufactured can exceed 42 layers. These types of multi layered boards are used in the most complex electronic circuits.
• It is important to make sure that the circuit boards used in products are reliable. In fact, problems caused by printing technique account for 70% of all surface assembly quality issues if you are not considering PCB design or quality of components and printed boards.
• Just one automatic line can place and solder more components than 50 hand solder operators. These machines are also able to create more consistent quality.
• Double-sided circuit boards connect the circuits on each side using one of two methods: surface count technology and through-hole technology.