Mass Design has added 3D modelling and rapid prototyping services!
Mass Design adds 3D modelling, rapid prototyping and printing to its suite of services.
These services will make sure your circuitboards fit your overall design in a cost efficient way by rendering, testing and making changes to a 3D model of your product.
Mass Design has Added a new Panel Size
30 + years later Mass Design is still making investments in the business based on industry direction and customer feedback. Although many of the PC Boards are miniaturizing with smaller footprints and smaller over all size we have customers going in the opposite direction with larger boards. Some of our customers who support alternative energy initiatives or semiconductor testing or military backplanes have been reaching out to us to go larger. We would like to announce that earlier this summer Mass Design purchased a 24 X 30 6 opening vacuum press allowing us to fabricate larger boards up to 24 X 30 (usable panel area of 22 x 28).
Look who is 30 years old!
Happy Birthday Mass Design!
Mass Design was founded in 1986 by Tony Bourassa and Paul Boduch specializing in PCB design. Over the years MD added fabrication and assembly. Today MD is proud to say it is a leader in high tech proto circuit board manufacturing. MD staff has grown from their founders to more than 50 employees. Tony and Paul would like to thanks all their present and past customers for making MD a success in the electronic world and look forward to another 30 years. All are invited to tour our new facility in Nashua. Please call Bill Gately (508 612 3341) to set up a time.
Mass Design Expands With US PCB Maker Electropac as New Division
Electropac Co. has become a new division of Mass Design, Inc. with the recent purchase of this printed circuit board manufacturer founded in 1976 in Manchester, New Hampshire.
The move came about as part of Electropac Co. founder Ray Boissoneau’s succession plan. Boissoneau, a highly regarded business leader in the printed circuit board industry, successfully grew Electropac’s US operation by integrating North American manufacturing with offshore production. He also gained recognition both internationally and in the Manchester community for developing and implementing innovative programs to augment job training and employment opportunities in the region.
Electropac customers may contact sales@massdesign.com for details and service.
“During its nearly four decades, Electropac established a wide reputation as an innovative manufacturer of circuit boards and was highly respected for its customer service and various PCB capabilities. Like Mass Design, Electropac has served commercial, medical, military and aerospace industries with custom design and manufacturing as well as large-volume production. The company’s key people, expertise, product mix and markets mesh perfectly with our corporate environment,” said Tony Bourassa, president of Mass Design, in making the announcement.
Bourassa cofounded Mass Design (www.massdesign.com) in 1986 with Paul Boduch, vice president, making it one of the oldest and largest continuously operating printed circuit board companies with a manufacturing base in the Northeastern US. The company occupies a 72,000 square foot design and production facility in Nashua, New Hampshire, just north of the Route 128 technology highway.
In addition to the Electropac brand, equipment and intellectual property, key former employees of the Manchester company will join Mass Design as part of the move.
Boissoneau added, "We had been talking with Tony and Paul for some time and could not have found better partners for our succession plan. For four decades, we’ve built tremendous equity in the Electropac brand and are pleased to have Electropac continue as a division of Mass Design and as part of the Mass Design family.”
Mass Design is recognized for its ability to manufacture fewer than a half-dozen to production volume printed circuit boards that meet extreme high reliability standards. The company’s certifications include: ISO9001: 2008 Certified, ISO13485 (medical): 2003 Certified, UL796. ITAR registered and compliant, MIL-PRF-55110G, IPC – 6012 and 6013, Class 2&3.
Much of Mass Design’s reputation for quality and reliability stems from having every function under one roof where all departments can communicate in-person during every step of the design, prototype and manufacturing process.
Mass Design offers full-service design-and-build solutions in rigid, rigid/flex, flex-to-install, dynamic flex and other circuit board solutions, as well as design assistance, NPI quick-turn prototyping transferable into production, value-added assembly and final testing of all circuits and assemblies.
Among its customers are original equipment manufacturers including Draper Labs, Amphenol Aerospace, Lockheed Martin, Siemens, Nova Biomedical, General Electric, Baxter, Tyco and many East Coast universities.
Mass Design Inc. Announces FabStream-for-Mass Design™
Free SoloPCB Design software integrated with Mass Design’s PCB manufacturing
Nashua, NH – April 20, 2013 – Mass Design, Inc. a manufacturer of high-reliability printed circuit boards (PCB) for critical applications, today announced the Beta Pilot launch of SoloPCB DesignTM software for Mass Design through the company’s partnership with FabStream, a new business initiative created by DownStream Technologies, LLC.
FabStream is an integrated printed circuit board (PCB) design and manufacturing solution targeted at the Do-It-Yourself (DIY) electronics market that consists of small businesses, start-ups, engineers, inventors, hobbyists, and other electronic enthusiasts. The solution consists of free SoloPCB DesignTM software customized to each of FabStream’s manufacturing partners.
With FabStream for Mass Design, customers can download the free SoloPCB Design software from Mass Design’s website (www.massdesign.com) preloaded with all of Mass Design’s manufacturing and pricing rules. The customer then creates PCB schematics and layouts. When finished, the PCB is automatically priced and ordered through an integrated e-commerce wizard. The wizard extracts all of the necessary manufacturing data into a secure and encrypted, industry standard IPC-2581 manufacturing file. The order information and manufacturing file are electronically routed to Mass Design’s inside sales department for order processing and CAM engineering. Since the service is largely Internet-based, FabStream for Mass Design can be accessed globally 24/7/365 extending Mass Design’s market potential.
With this addition, Mass Design expands its already innovative integrated manufacturing strategy by adding free PCB design tools tied into the company’s manufacturing flow. The result is complete front-to- back support including design software, design services, bare board fabrication, and PCB assembly. Mass Design’s customers can select any combination of these services.
“For our customers to be competitive in today’s economy we have to think outside the box and offer more than just traditional manufacturing services,” said Paul Boduch, VP of Operations at Mass Design. “Including FabStream as a Mass Design service was an obvious addition to align our customers engineering efforts more closely with our manufacturing flow and greatly increase their product success.”
Mass Design has created a pricing model specifically for the DIY Engineer that offers extremely low pricing for PCBs based on pre-set construction configurations. This allows the company to group similar PCB orders and manufacture at a much lower cost. The savings is then passed on to the end-user.
William Gately, Mass Design’s Director of Sales and Marketing explains, “FabStream helps us reach a market segment that is difficult to address with traditional sales and marketing channels. To support the DIY engineer we needed to keep prototype costs low but at the same time, provide expertise to users unfamiliar with PCB manufacturing. By pre-setting PCB construction configurations, such as material, copper, thickness, and finishes, the burden of understanding the nuances of PCB manufacturing have been eliminated and the manufacturability of the design is greatly improved. This reduces our tooling costs and creates savings through economies of scale that can be passed on to the customer.”
At the start of the SoloPCB layout process, users select a pre-set PCB configuration in two, four or six layer options. All of Mass Design’s manufacturing rules, materials and pricing associated with the configuration are used to drive the layout and ordering process. When more advanced PCB features are need, a “Full Feature” option is offered enabling up to 16 layer PCB designs with tighter design rules. Full feature also supports advanced design technologies such as blind and buried vias and controlled impedance. Changes introduced in the layout process can be quickly verified using an integrated Design Analyzer. The analyzer provides a quick pass/fail of changes to help keep the PCB layout in synch with Mass Design’s constraints so customers can design without compromise but still build with confidence.
Mass Design is the first of FabStream’s inaugural partners to release the service to their customer base. The companies have worked closely together over the past 12 months to define the service and customize FabStream to Mass Design’s production flow.
“We are excited that Mass Design has chosen to license FabStream as part of its integrated approach to manufacturing,” stated Rick Almeida, Founder of DownStream Technologies and Managing Director of FabStream. “They’re expertise in PCB manufacturing combined with our knowledge of PCB software development delivers the best of both worlds. FabStream for Mass Design offers the layperson an intuitive solution to a complex part of electronic product development.”
Availability and Pricing
Beginning today, FabStream for Mass Design, Inc. is now in Beta Pilot. SoloPCB Design Software for Mass Design can be downloaded at Mass Design’s corporate website:www.massdesign.com. The SoloPCB Design Software for Mass Design is free and Mass Design’s PCB pricing will apply.
About Mass Design
Mass Design, Inc. 72,000 square foot facility located just north of Boston’s Route 128 Technology Highway has been designing and manufacturing high-reliability printed circuit boards (PCB) that can be manufactured cost-effectively by a diverse customer base that includes Fortune 500 companies, the Department of Defense, start-ups, OEMs and contract manufacturers. The company’s integrated manufacturing approach removes communication obstacles between engineering and manufacturing to eliminate common pitfalls when introducing new products to market.
©2013 Mass Design, Inc. All rights reserved. FabStreamTM and SoloPCB DesignerTM are trademarks of DownStream Technologies, LLC and all other trademarks and registered trademarks contained within this document are the property of their respective owners.
“Outlook Bright for US Manufacturing in 2013” Mass Design Says
Though 2012 was marked with uncertainty, 2013 looks promising for US manufacturers – among them companies like Mass Design that are located in technology hubs where they draw on a highly educated workforce and serve niche customers nearby.
Mass Design (www.massdesign.com) produces high-reliability circuit boards used in military, medical, aerospace and instrumentation products as well as emerging sectors such as renewable energy.
For insight into the 2013 outlook, PCB Design 007 interviewed Bill Gately, Mass Design’s sales manager. See a reprint of his interview, An American PCB Manufacturer's Tale: http://massdesign.com/sites/default/files/article.pdf
While we expect some consumer electronics manufacturing to return to the US in 2013, for the most part, circuit boards for smart phones, computers and toasters are manufactured in Asia where plants hire thousands of workers to assemble millions of boards.
In contrast, Mass Design has fewer than 100 employees who can take a new product from design through prototype to fabrication and assembly – all under one roof. Its Nashua, New Hampshire location is a stone’s throw from Massachusetts’ Route 128 Technology Highway and Boston and Cambridge. Defense contractors and medical products manufacturers such as Raytheon, Fresenius and GE are within driving distance. Area colleges and universities deliver top engineering, manufacturing and technical talent. Likewise, the East Coast’s high-tech community promotes knowledge sharing and other intangible benefits.
Regarding past election uncertainty, Gately notes, “Since Paul Boduch and Tony Bourassa founded the company in l986, we’ve been through seven Presidential electoral cycles. We’ve heard arguments over which candidate would have been better for defense or healthcare – two technology-driven sectors in which Mass Design leads. Nonetheless, politics matter far less than how well we respond to technology, business and economic shifts in the US and worldwide.”
The emphasis on medical outcomes, cost and home monitoring offers potential with Mass Design participating in developing diagnostic and treatment equipment for Siemens, Baxter, GE, Tyco and others.
Regarding the military, Gately says, “In 2010, the US Cyber Command was created to coordinate our cyberspace resources and defend our information security environment. This emphasis on computer defense is unprecedented.”
Additionally, “Wind energy has shifted from ‘alternate’ to mainstream and we’re working on next-generation wind turbines,” says Gately. Mass Design manufactures multi-layer PCB boards large enough to handle massive amounts of current and power.
Bill Gately, Mass Design
“We also serve customers who insist on manufacturing in the US for quicker turnaround, product confidence and environmental and safety standard assurances,” says Gately adding, “More broadly, outsourcing is turning around. Apple CEO Tim Cook has announced plans to manufacture one of its Mac lines in the US during an interview with NBC’s Brian Williams.” For more details please visit: Huffington Post.
December’s Atlantic magazine echoes Gately’s optimism. In The Insourcing Boom, Charles Fishman reports that GE is adding assembly lines at its Appliance Park in Louisville, KY noting, “U.S. labor productivity has continued its long march upward [and] …. You simply can’t save much money chasing wages anymore.”
Mass Design Announces High Frequency/High Speed Material Processing
Nashua, NH: Mass Design, a leading PCB provider and integrated manufacturer, has announced the addition of process enhancements and manufacturing optimizations to facilitate the manufacture and assembly of high frequency PCB materials such as Rogers Corp 3000/6000 Series based ceramic filled PTFE and 4000 Series hydrocarbon ceramic products, and similar materials from Taconic and Arlon
These high performance PCB materials provide optimal performance in high frequency/high signal integrity applications such as precision instrumentation, telecommunications, and wireless devices, and as such, require a higher level of manufacturing precision and process engineering experience above that of conventional laminate and substrate materials to assure consistent quality and final yield.
Mass Design's experienced process engineers can assist customers in achieving their specific performance criteria with these high performance materials and enable them to optimize their final products without expensive redesigns. The combined strengths of their design experience and multi-material process capabilities sets Mass Design apart from the competition.
Mass Design Adds Mirtec MV-3L Automatic Optical Inspection System
Nashua, NH: Mass Design, a leading integrated manufacturer, announces the addition of the Mirtec MV-3L Automatic Optical Inspection system to their integrated manufacturing production line.
The MV-3L Series represents the leading edge in Optical Inspection Systems and is designed to automatically inspect for manufacturing defects in both pre and post reflow stages utilizing a two megapixel color camera and 5 direction inspection from top down and 4 additional side angles. The system provides superior fault coverage for both SMT and through hole assemblies and will detect defects such as component presence/absence, polarity, misalignment, insufficient solder, excessive solder, solder bridging, bent leads, lifted leads, solder balls etc. Utilizing SPC software functionality, the MV-3L promotes continuous process improvement by allowing Mass Design's process engineers to track and eliminate defects on inspected assemblies while in process.
Paul Boduch, Vice President of Mass Design, stated: "The addition of the MV-3L AOI System gives us true multi axis inspection capability in real time. This allows us to provide our customers with fault-free assemblies and 100% manufacturing yield in the quickest possible time frame, and further strengthens our position as the leading provider of One-Stop Integrated Manufacturing"
Mass Design's Tony Bourassa on the Future of the PCB Industry
http://realtimewith.com/pages/show.cgi?rtwsid=44&rtwvid=1784
"At the prototype level, it takes a lot of communication to get a printed circuit board up and running. Our ability to get everyone talking to each other - from engineering and design through testing - enables us to solve the problems before going into production."
Tony Bourassa and Paul Boduch cofounders of Mass Design
When Tony Bourassa and Paul Boduch founded Mass Design 25 years ago, they combined their expertise. Tony brought his knowledge of PCB design, Paul brought his knowledge of PCB fabrication processes. The two partners quickly found their niche - offering customers a rare blend of services: design, fabrication and assembly - all done in a single, 75,000 square-foot technology center in Nashua, New Hampshire, just north of Boston.
Tony was recently interviewed at the IPC APEX EXPO by Joe Fjelsten. To see a video of Tony's insights into the PCB industry and Mass Design's future please visit:
““We are really connected - from the engineer through all levels of design, fabrication and assembly under one roof in Nashua, New Hampshire. We have the ability to design and build as few as five or 25 boards and as many as 2,500 or more.”
”We try to stay on the technological edge in both fabrication and assembly. We’re fabricating boards with 3-mil line width and up to 24 layers. When it comes to assembly, we’re employing Mydata machines with full vision and we’re able to place micro BGAs (ball grid arrays) and 0201 components”
“We’ve been manufacturing flexible circuit boards for the military and civilian industries and medical product companies like Siemens, Nova Biomedical, GE Healthcare, Baxter, Tyco and others for over a decade. Flex is a big part of where our industry is going and we’re keeping our eye on the future.””
Mass Design, Inc. Selects SCHMOLL PCB Drilling System from Bürkle North America Alliance Partner
Garden Grove, CA, June 7, 2011 -- Bürkle North America’s FabFour Group, today announced that Mass Design Inc. of Nashua, New Hampshire has placed an order for an advanced high-speed drilling system from Schmoll Maschinen to fabricate increasingly intricate and miniaturized printed circuit boards (PCBs). Schmoll Maschinen is headquartered in Frankfurt, Germany. The Schmoll machine is scheduled for installation in June 2011.
In making the announcement, Dave Howard, Vice President and Business Unit Schmoll Drilling System at Mass DesignManager for Bürkle North America (www.burkleusa.com) said, “The model MX-1 DH CCD is a single-station drilling and routing system equipped with high-speed linear motors in the X, Y and Z axis. In addition, this particular unit is configured with dual heads; one used for drilling and one for routing as well as a CCD camera for both surface and inner-layer registration work.” Burkle is a leading supplier of technology, equipment and manufacturing solutions to the PCB industry in North America.
““The addition of a Schmoll drilling and router system is significant when it comes to delivering PCBs that are increasingly complex and miniaturized for our medical technology, defense, aerospace and other customers who require high-reliability rigid, flex and rigid-flex PCBs.””
““During the past two years Mass Design has been investing heavily in advanced manufacturing technology and machinery. With a tool like the Schmoll MX-1, we can improve both speed and accuracy and, as a result, become even more competitive in the market sector we serve.””
The company offers design through prototype, testing, fabrication and assembly at its 75,000 square-foot technology and manufacturing center just north of Boston, Massachusetts, USA. Mass Design customers include Siemens, GE Healthcare, Nova Biomedical, Baxter, Fresenius, Tyco, Boeing, Raytheon and Bose.
Schmoll, located near Frankfurt, Germany is part of Bürkle’s FabFour Machinery Alliance consisting of Bürkle Lamination and Coating Systems, Bacher Registration and Exposure Systems and LHMT Scoring and Beveling equipment.