Laser-cut stainless steel SMT stencil foil tensioned in an aluminum frame

Order a stencil on its own, from your paste data.

Illuminious is a U.S. NPI engineering company. A standalone stencil order is cut from paste data you supply, with no board order attached, and it is the route when the boards came from somewhere else or already exist. Engineered in San Francisco. Prototype builds, DFM and mass production in our own factory in Shenzhen. Upload your files, get a free engineering review, and pay only the official quote that review publishes.

You already have boards, and you need the tool that prints paste on them. Send your paste-layer Gerber or DXF. A specialist checks the apertures against the foil thickness, then the foil is cut, with no board order attached and nothing assumed about the data.

Two ways in: configure it online and a specialist prepares your official quote within 24 hours on business days, or send the job to an engineer. Engineering review is free either way and comes before you pay.

Payment: Official price after free review
Review target: Within 24 hours on business days after you submit

Talk to an engineer Get an official quote in 24 hours

No CAD yet? Our design team can take it from a sketch or a spec.

The configurator opens with this configuration preselected. An engineer reviews every order. Account required; engineering review is free and comes before payment.

Should the stencil be ordered on its own or with the boards?

Boards fabricated elsewhere that still need paste tooling
Replacing a worn, damaged, or lost stencil
A second foil for a different assembly line or paste type
Prototype runs where a frameless foil is enough

Typical orders: Single foils through repeat tooling orders, subject to aperture and frame review.
Accepted files: Paste-layer Gerber data or a DXF. Add a fabrication drawing, an assembly drawing, or a reference photograph when the side, frame, usable area, or labeling needs explaining.
Payment basis: Official price after free review
Preparation workbook: Download the intake workbook

The choices that decide the part.

Each of these is a real configuration decision with a cost and a consequence, not a feature list. Where one of them constrains another, engineering review is the step that resolves it.

Frameless foil

The economical prototype choice: a bare foil used in a tensioning frame at the printer. Lower cost, easy to store, and the usual answer for short runs.

Framed stencil

The foil is permanently mounted and tensioned in an aluminum frame, ready to drop into a printer. The right choice for production lines and repeated setups.

Foil thickness and apertures

Thickness sets paste volume; aperture size sets where it lands. The pair has to suit the finest-pitch component on the board, which is exactly what review checks.

Step and coating

Step regions locally change foil thickness for mixed component sizes. Nano coating improves paste release on fine apertures. Both are declared options with real cost.

What the configurator accepts, and where review takes over.

Standalone stencil capability bounds
Parameter	Supported range
Construction	Frameless, framed, or custom frame. Frame sizes of 20 × 20, 23 × 23, and 29 × 29 in, or a custom size that routes to review.
Foil size and quantity	20–1000 mm width and height, 1–1000 stencils per line.
Foil thickness	0.08, 0.10, 0.12, 0.15, or 0.18 mm, or 'engineer selected' if you would rather we choose it against your aperture set.
Aperture side	Top, bottom, top and bottom on one foil, or separate top and bottom foils.
Treatment	Step-stencil regions and nano coating are per-line options. Application is solder paste or adhesive/red glue.
Registration and marking	Fiducials as none, half-cut, or through-cut, plus optional engraved text and production-file confirmation.
Source data	Paste-layer Gerber or DXF. Review confirms the layers are the ones you meant before anything is cut.
Aperture feasibility	Confirmed in review against the finest pitch on your board rather than published as a single minimum.

These are the configurations the configurator accepts. A stencil outside them is still quoted: a specialist prepares the official quote within 24 hours on business days. Whether a given aperture set will actually print well at a given thickness is an engineering answer, and it is free.

Boundaries

Selecting a foil thickness is not an aperture approval — the two are checked together in review
Ambiguous or mislabeled top and bottom paste layers block release until they are resolved
Fine-pitch and step regions are always reviewed rather than cut on the declared configuration alone

What drives the price of a standalone stencil?

Quotation by a specialist. Quotation within 24 hours on business days. A specialist prices your exact SMT Stencil scope from your files and specifications. You submit your request online, and the quotation arrives in your account and by email. Review is free. Nothing is charged until you accept a quotation.

Foil dimensions, usable area, and quantity
Frame type and frame size
Foil thickness and aperture side configuration
Step regions, nano coating, fiducials, and engraving
Packaging, setup, and requested lead time

What engineering reviews

Customer approvals may include

Any engineer-recommended aperture change
The production file, when you requested confirmation
Any itemized price or lead-time revision

That the uploaded layers are the paste layers, in the orientation you intended
Aperture area ratio and bridge risk against the selected foil thickness
Fine-pitch, QFN, and BGA regions that may need a step or a coating
Frame size against the usable area your printer needs
Fiducial style and any engraved text

Free review first. Keep every later decision explicit.

Replacement paste data creates a new revision rather than overwriting the paid source, so the foil that was priced and the foil that was cut are always the same one.

Create your account
Verify your email before the persistent quote workspace opens. Every file, estimate, message, and payment stays attached to that account.
Configure and upload
Provide service-specific inputs and place technical files in private project storage. Saved drafts remain available across sessions.
Free engineering review
Submit the configured cart at no charge. A reviewer checks the exact file and specification revision, then prices it or opens a documented question or correction request.
Official quote
Review publishes an itemized quote with lead time and a validity window. That is the binding figure; anything shown earlier was a preliminary estimate.
Accept and pay
Accepting opens payment rather than charging you. Lead time is counted from settled payment, and any later itemized revision needs your approval first.
Produce and deliver
After all commercial, technical, and customer gates are complete, the project moves through the service-specific production or design milestones.

Commitments the order system actually enforces.

Official quote prepared by a specialist and engineering review

A specialist prepares your official quote within 24 hours on business days from the declared construction and treatment. Review then opens the paste layers and checks aperture feasibility against your foil thickness — the check that most often changes a stencil before it is cut.

Paste data stays private

Gerber and DXF uploads live in per-project storage reached through short-lived authenticated links. Replacement data creates a new revision instead of overwriting the one that was priced.

Review target

Stencil projects are targeted for review one business day after you submit them. Review is free and precedes the official price.

Answers before you upload anything.

Framed or frameless?

Frameless is cheaper and fine for prototypes and low-volume work with a tensioning frame. Framed is the production answer: it drops straight into the printer, holds tension consistently, and survives repeated setups. If you are unsure, say what printer the foil will run on and review will recommend one.

Which foil thickness should I pick?

It depends on the smallest aperture on the board, not on preference. Select 'engineer selected' if you would rather we choose it against your paste data — that is what the option is there for, and it costs nothing extra.

Is the amount at checkout final?

The free engineering review comes first. Depending on the service you see a live supplier price, a published fixed price, or a price from a specialist within 24 hours on business days, and nothing is charged when you submit. After the review we publish an official quote with an itemized total, lead time and a validity window, and that is the amount you are asked to pay. Accepting the official quote opens payment rather than charging you. If a later correction changes scope or price, you see an itemized revision and can approve, question or decline it. We never silently charge an increase.

How is my paste data protected?

Your technical files are stored in private project storage and accessed through short-lived authenticated links. Files, prices, replacements and approvals stay tied to your account and keep their revision history.

Get an official quote for a standalone stencil with frameless already selected.

Upload the paste layers, set frame, thickness, and treatment, and review confirms the apertures before you are asked for an official price.

Three lead-time tiers, each with its trade on the line: Economy lengthens the quoted target range and takes a discount line; Standard is the quoted target range at the quoted price; Express shortens it and adds an expedite line. You see the line before you commit, and every range is a target, not a promise.