Hertfordshire PCB manufacturer ABL Circuits has worked with intelligent building technology specialist Simmtronic to document the manufacture of one of its printed circuit boards from production material to finished board.
The film follows the PCB through ABL Circuits’ UK facility and uses the manufacturing process to examine how sustainability decisions appear in routine production rather than only in corporate targets or finished-product claims.
ABL Circuits has manufactured in the UK since 1983 and provides PCB fabrication, assembly, and testing from Baldock in Hertfordshire. Simmtronic develops intelligent lighting and building-control technology, placing the two businesses at different but directly connected points in the electronics supply chain.
Printed circuit board production brings together a succession of material and process stages including imaging, etching, drilling, plating, finishing, inspection, assembly, and testing. Each consumes energy, materials, chemicals, tooling, and labour, while a fault detected late in production can result in much more embedded waste than one identified close to the start.
Sustainability in electronics manufacturing is therefore difficult to isolate into a single metric. Shorter transport routes may reduce one source of emissions, while production yield, scrap, rework, packaging, electricity consumption, and material selection determine how efficiently the manufacturing operation itself uses resources.
ABL’s approach centres on repeatedly reviewing those manufacturing decisions rather than treating environmental performance as a separate programme outside production. Keeping fabrication, assembly, and testing within one operation also gives the business more direct control over how information and physical product move between stages.
The relationship with Simmtronic adds the effect of geographical proximity. Design questions, quality issues, changes to quantities, and manufacturing constraints can be discussed directly with a UK supplier rather than moving through several international tiers, reducing some of the delay associated with engineering changes.
ABL’s existing case material identifies reusable packaging as one practical example of the relationship. The manufacturer produces laser-cut foam sized to Simmtronic’s PCBs, then retrieves the packaging during later deliveries so that it can be used repeatedly rather than discarded after one shipment.
The intervention is modest compared with replacing an entire chemical or fabrication process, but its effect accumulates. Packaging that completes several cycles avoids a repeated stream of single-use material and reduces the cost associated with purchasing and disposing of replacement packaging for each batch.
Local delivery creates similar trade-offs. Manufacturing close to the customer shortens one portion of the transport route and can make smaller, more responsive deliveries practical, although distance alone does not determine environmental performance. Vehicle utilisation, shipment frequency, electricity source, and upstream raw materials still contribute to the complete footprint.
The more immediate manufacturing benefit is responsiveness. Printed circuit boards are often upstream of higher-value assembly operations, so a delayed board can stop production even when processors, sensors, connectors, enclosures, and other components are already available.
Longer international routes also increase the cost of engineering changes because material may already be committed or in transit when a design revision is released. A shorter supplier relationship can reduce that lag, particularly for prototypes, product revisions, and relatively low-volume industrial electronics.
Local PCB manufacture does not eliminate global dependencies. Copper-clad laminates, chemicals, specialist finishes, electronic components, machinery, consumables, and tooling remain part of wider international supply chains. It does, however, bring one critical manufacturing stage closer to the product designer and gives the customer greater visibility into how boards are produced.
That visibility is central to the film. Electronics products are commonly discussed through processor performance, software, sensors, connectivity, or the final application, while fabrication of the circuit board that physically connects those functions attracts much less attention once it disappears inside an enclosure.
Following one board through production exposes where material is added, removed, inspected, cleaned, handled, and tested. It also demonstrates the relationship between sustainability and conventional manufacturing performance: a board scrapped at final test carries environmental waste because it already contains the cost and resources of every preceding process.
Improving first-time yield therefore serves both objectives. Less rework and scrap reduce material and energy consumption, while also improving productivity, lead time, and manufacturing margin. Environmental and commercial improvements align most easily where the same process change produces both effects.
Design decisions made before production can have a similar impact. Panel utilisation, board dimensions, layer count, tolerances, material specifications, component availability, and test strategy can alter the quantity of manufacturing resource required to deliver the same electronic function.
Simmtronic’s building-control systems add a lifecycle dimension because the electronics are intended to help buildings manage energy more intelligently during use. That does not erase the impact of manufacturing the hardware, but it means the environmental case involves both production inputs and the performance delivered during the product’s service life.
Watch the ABL Circuits and Simmtronic PCB manufacturing film.
The project avoids requiring sustainability to rest on one dramatic factory intervention. PCB manufacture remains a materials- and process-intensive industrial activity, and local sourcing does not remove its upstream dependencies. The useful improvements are often less theatrical: higher yield, reusable packaging, fewer unnecessary movements, better communication, and manufacturing decisions made before waste is created.
Those measures also have the advantage of being measurable inside an operating factory. Sustainability programmes that improve cost, quality, lead time, or resilience at the same time are generally easier to retain than initiatives that compete directly with the production targets the business is expected to meet.
