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The Chemical Connection Onshoring PCB Production—Daunting but Certainly Possible

In the past year, several potential customers, concerned about the impending application of tariffs on incoming goods, have asked us what it would take to bring their circuit board production back to the U.S. While they also had other considerations, the threat of new tariffs was the tipping point that started them thinking about the economic advantages of bringing their manufacturing back onshore. It might be interesting to relate our experiences with two of those inquiries.

Was This Venture All a ‘Waste?’
The first company has never produced its own circuit boards, depending instead on outside suppliers, mostly from China, for several thousand square feet of boards per month. The pending tariffs would cut their profit levels significantly, and this, along with some problems incurred when using offshore providers, led them to think about starting their own PCB facility in the U.S. Inventory control has always been a problem—not knowing what was in China, in transit, or on hand. Quality control was also a problem. With the supplier several thousand miles away, yields were hard to control. Communication problems also made it hard to get anything done quickly. Does any of this sound familiar?

Starting from scratch for a circuit board facility of this size is daunting, but after initial meetings and discussions, the project looked doable, at least from my point of view. We supplied them with satisfactory budgetary quotes for the wet processing equipment based on their requirements and put them in touch with other suppliers for equipment (etch resists, laminators, exposure units, etc.) and chemistries we couldn’t provide. These fell into line with the company’s expectations, and we got into the details of chemical usage, process controls, and waste stream management. This is where the project stalled.

The state and local environmental regulations were stringent, and in the end, the cost of an onsite treatment plant to meet those regulations exceeded the cost of the entire facility combined. The company decided that this made the project economically unfeasible, and it would be better off continuing to purchase their circuit boards rather than onshore production. This was, of course, a bitter disappointment for us, but, given the circumstances, probably a wise decision for them for the immediate future. Hopefully, the proposed tariffs will raise the price of offshore-manufactured boards to where they look at U.S. suppliers for their boards. That would be good for them and, in the long run, for us.

This may have been a case of too much, too soon. Perhaps a better approach would have been to bring a percentage of the offshore product in-house and then, as experience and expertise are gained, gradually expand to the production needed. The other lesson is to make sure you understand the local environmental regulations before seriously considering bringing your board production in-house. Fortunately, the second example illustrated here shows that it is possible to go from zero to full in-house production.

The Devil’s in the Details
The second example is about a company that makes precision measuring equipment and prototypes. This company requires far fewer circuit boards than my first example, but their circuit boards have very tight tolerances, and they’ve had trouble getting what they need from their outside suppliers. (I’m not sure whether their suppliers were on- or offshore). This company asked: Would bringing our board production onshore to allow for better quality control be economically feasible? We went through the same procedures as above. We provided quotes for the equipment we could supply and pointed them to other suppliers for their other equipment and chemistry needs. After all that, the company determined it would be feasible to make their own boards and bought equipment and supplies to set up a shop. Our contribution was a two-stage cleaning system for surface preparation and a cupric chloride DES system.

However, we could tell by the questions they asked about our equipment that they had no experience in actually running a circuit board shop and no idea how to keep it running efficiently. This was a situation we generally don’t run into as an equipment supplier since most of our customers are already familiar with circuit board manufacturing. We had to think about what non-capital equipment a shop needs to keep the place running efficiently—those little things that you don’t think of until you need them. We provided them with a list of useful things to have around that make running a shop easier and more efficient, including things that any small- to medium-sized shop should have.

I convinced them they needed a small chemical analysis lab tucked into a corner somewhere to back up the automatic chemistry controls, especially for the free acid in the cupric chloride, just enough to do simple acid/base titrations. These are relatively uncomplicated and don’t require a trained chemist, but are invaluable in confirming that the automatic chemistry controls are functioning as designed. We supplied a list of the necessary glassware and chemicals, and they set up a small chemistry lab near the etch area.

Another list of frequently overlooked items in the initial planning included handheld pH and ORP meters (keeping in mind that a person with one pH meter will always know what the pH is, while the person with two pH meters is never certain). Also included were a scale with at least a 200-pound max for making up their process chemistries, an electric drum pump for moving large amounts of chemistry, hand-operated siphon pumps for moving small amounts of chemistry, a shop vac, and a mop and bucket. A mop and bucket may seem somewhat mundane, but you’ll find them to be the most-used in the shop. Due to column length requirements, this isn’t a comprehensive list of all we supplied, and many of you can likely think of several other items that were overlooked.

So far (knock on wood), everything seems to be running smoothly, but the next several months will tell.

Starting a circuit board manufacturing facility from scratch is not something to be considered lightly, but it is possible with careful planning and foresight.

This column originally appeared in the October 2025 issue of PCB007 Magazine.