Restructuring a product to use flexible circuits instead of rigid boards presents immediate weight benefits. Users generally experience weight decreases of up to 75% when compared to conventional designs. This is facilitated by the thin materials consisting of polyester or polyimide materials – thin films ranging from 12-120 microns thick. Conductive material traces are imprinted on the flexible board in as many layers as the PCB specifications.

Usually, a cover layer is applied to prevent moisture and dust from contaminating the layers. 

Another crucial application of flexible board design is eliminating wiring harnesses and ribbon connectors once applied to connect various boards.

For instance, to link the engine control unit of a vehicle to the dashboard or lighting section. The standardization and economy of scale that accompanies this also minimizes the assembly expenses, condensing the components and interconnections needed and permitting high-volume production.   

Most FPC supplier’s customers realize that they can decrease connection costs by up to 70% compared to the conventional wiring harness design. A decrease in connection expenses consequently leads to a reduction of the costs associated with irregular quality. Besides, flex circuits’ standardization design also gets rid of manual harness errors.