Every year, the American Water Works Association’s conference and expo brings together experts from around the globe to share ideas about water management, infrastructure and technology.
That’s how many gallons of treated drinking water America loses every day, due to the country’s aging, leaky infrastructure.
That’s according to the American Society of Civil Engineers, which gave the country’s water infrastructure a “D” grade in its annual infrastructure report card this year.
“While water consumption is down, there are still an estimated 240,000 water main breaks per year in the United States, wasting over two trillion gallons of treated drinking water,” the report says.
And while the White House has proposed $1 trillion for infrastructure improvements around the country, the American Water Works Association says it will take at least that amount just to upgrade the nation’s water systems.
Printed circuit boards are the beating heart of essentially any electronic product, and prototyping your control board prior to full production can save money and time.
Prototyping offers several advantages. For one, it gives you the ability to test various configurations for maximum efficiency.
And when you work with a company that provides in-house prototyping, you cut down on the time it takes to create prototypes.
As you build your PCB prototype, it’s important to keep in mind the fabrication specifications of your product. These design requirements include:
To ensure that quality products arrive on time, you need an expedited feedback loop from engineering and design to prototyping and the manufacturing floor.
That’s where design for manufacturability comes in. It’s a design method that takes manufacturing aspects into consideration early in the process, creating an environment in which several disciplines work together to make sure the design leads to cost-effective manufacturing.