I can't talk actual costs but I know from my experience that ridge-flex boards cost about 1-1/2 as much as a ridge board (10 layer) from our suppliers. I often order one panel, 18x24, and sometimes 12x18. I have never seen a 10x cost increase. Now my boards are high reliability, high temperature, high shock, high vibration, which makes them very expensive to begin with. If you are ordering from a vender that does little or no flex then maybe you are paying for their learning curve. The way you design your ridge-flex board will affect the cost. Edge to copper keep-outs, spacing around PTHs, bend radius, over-lays, copper weight, dielectric thickness.. You don't say what your volume is only that it is commercial low volume production. I order in low volume, one or two panels in engineering and 3 or 4 panels in production at a time. If you are ordering tens or hundreds of panels say of ridge FR4 then you can't compare it with ridge-flex unless you are ordering the same quantity. If you need a U.S. supplier for high reliability boards I can offer you a few off-line. If you are looking for commercial class 1 or 2 these suppliers are probably not for you. As far as ribbon cables go, I have used many jumpers from Tyco Electronics and Thomas & Bettts Company. They are Kapton base wire jumpers on .100" centers. They're low cost and are flexible. However, these jumpers are intended to be flexed only a few times during assembly and test not flexed over and over again as in a printer head. Best regards, Donald Kyle At 11:49 AM 11/1/2006, you wrote: >I'm curious as to how folks can justify going to Flex circuits with the >enormous costs involved in making them... (suffering from sticker shock) > >The costs going from rigid to rigid-flex seem to be about 10:1. > >Is that typical? > >Any comments on making the transition to flex that someone with the 'scars' >can share? > >P.S. - Please call me if you have some idea of how to keep flex costs down >and make this technology a viable option in a commercial low volume product. >Otherwise I think a ribbon cable and connector are much cheaper alternatives >to building the cable into a rigid-flex board. > >Best regards, > > >Bill Brooks >PCB Design Engineer, C.I.D.+ >Tel: (760)597-1500 Fax: (760)597-1510 >Datron World Communications, Inc. >Vista, California > >--------------------------------------------------------------------------------- >DesignerCouncil Mail List provided as a free service by IPC using >LISTSERV 1.8d >To unsubscribe, send a message to [log in to unmask] with following text in >the BODY (NOT the subject field): SIGNOFF DesignerCouncil. >To temporarily stop/(restart) delivery of DesignerCouncil send: SET >DesignerCouncil NOMAIL/(MAIL) >Search previous postings at: www.ipc.org > On-Line Resources & >Databases > E-mail Archives >Please visit IPC web site >http://www.ipc.org/contentpage.asp?Pageid=4.3.16 for additional >information, or contact Keach Sasamori at [log in to unmask] or >847-615-7100 ext.2815 >--------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Donald Kyle C.I.D.+ 281-285-7528 voice 281-285-8593 fax [log in to unmask] Schlumberger Sugar Land Product Center (SPC) Mail Drop MD155-1 155 Industrial Boulevard Sugar Land, Texas 77478 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- DesignerCouncil Mail List provided as a free service by IPC using LISTSERV 1.8d To unsubscribe, send a message to [log in to unmask] with following text in the BODY (NOT the subject field): SIGNOFF DesignerCouncil. To temporarily stop/(restart) delivery of DesignerCouncil send: SET DesignerCouncil NOMAIL/(MAIL) Search previous postings at: www.ipc.org > On-Line Resources & Databases > E-mail Archives Please visit IPC web site http://www.ipc.org/contentpage.asp?Pageid=4.3.16 for additional information, or contact Keach Sasamori at [log in to unmask] or 847-615-7100 ext.2815 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------