NESS ZIONA, ISRAEL -- Companies involved in printed electronics design and manufacturing typically outsource PCB production, investing significant capital and experiencing long turn times with PCB prototypes. 

And, a new survey suggests, they are looking for cost-effective, faster, and safer means for doing so.

That’s according to a data compiled by Nano Dimension, an OEM of 3D printed electronics equipment.

The company sponsored the survey, which was conducted by a third-party over several months and garnered responses from nearly 300 electronics manufacturers and designers worldwide. Respondents ranged from engineers to designers and project managers, serving in a variety of production roles. Industries ranged from PCB manufacturers and OEMs to engineering, defense, manufacturing, aerospace, electronics, medical, sensors and wearables, telecommunications, energy and others.

While the bulk of the respondents were from North America, the survey brought in results from around the world, including nearly every European nation, Australia, India, Israel, and a variety of Asian, African and South American nations. Respondents included a mix of company sizes, with nearly three in four working for companies of fewer than 500 employees, and slightly more than one quarter working for companies with more than 500 workers.

Among the key findings: 16% of respondents said their companies spend more than $100,000 each year on PCB prototypes, and 17% spend between $50,000 and $100,000. Forty-four percent of respondents noted PCB spending of between $10,000 and $50,000 annually. Just 23% of respondents said their companies spend less than $10,000 on PCB prototyping each year.

Ninety-three percent of all survey participants said their companies work with short-run, low-volume external PCB prototyping services at some point each year. Sixty-two percent of the survey respondents noted the PCBs their companies create and use have high layer counts, which means their designs are more complex and the PCB prototyping process is more expensive.

Nearly two in three survey respondents worry about the security of their intellectual property when they send out their designs to third parties for prototyping. Other concerns companies typically cite when sending their prototype designs to outside firms include turnaround time, expenses, and potential delays in getting their products to market, particularly if prototypes need to be reworked several times.

According to BCC Research, the global market for electronics manufacturing services (EMS) should total $515.6 billion in 2015, reach nearly $561.2 billion by 2016, and $845.8 billion by 2021, a five-year compound annual growth rate of 8.6% from 2016-2021.

Nano Dimension says the data add up to an opportunity for bringing PCB prototyping in-house.

“The offsite PCB prototyping process is rife with downsides: it’s expensive, it’s time consuming, and it puts intellectual property at risk,” said Simon Fried, chief business officer at Nano Dimension. “The market has seen 3D printers rapidly prototype other kinds of products and the results of our survey reflect a market that is ready for 3D printing to now usher in a new era of PCB engineering. The time is now for engineers to print their own quality multilayer PCB prototypes in house, cheaply and quickly.”

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