Mar 23, 2011 
Ever wondered what happens inside a typical CAM department at your bare-board fabricator? Ever wondered why some fabricators’ CAM departments flag issues that others don’t? CAM departments have gone through quite an evolution since their inception. Today’s CAM systems and CAM departments are critical for taking CAD data, ensuring manufacturability and creating manufacturing tools.
The presentation will provide a generic overview of a typical CAM department’s practices, methodologies and requirements. Attendees will learn rules-of-thumb DFM guidelines as well as what data from designers is required for fabrication. The presentation also will discuss what CAM departments do with data and the top reasons why jobs go on hold at fabrication and how to prevent them.
Mike Tucker is the director of engineering at Colonial Circuits, Inc. and works closely with designers and manufacturing engineers to create robust, manufacturable products. Mike has worked in bare boards for 15+ years and is an expert in frontend engineering.
For 30 years, Colonial Circuits has been a leading full-service manufacturer of high-quality circuit boards serving the military, space and commercial markets from its 40,000 sq ft facility in historic Fredericksburg, VA. Colonial Circuit’s capabilities include multilayer constructions, a collection of rigid, flexible, rigid/flex materials, blind/buried vias and a variety of other skills not found in many shops. Lead times as short as 24 hours make Colonial Circuits a prime choice for the industry's low-volume/high-reliability needs.
