Assembling LED Boards
ASSEMBLING LED BOARDS
Pick and place machines are also used to assemble LED boards. They can do so far more quickly and accurately than hand assembly. There are special considerations you need to keep in mind, when selecting a pick and place machine for your LED assembly jobs.
PCB HANDLING
LED boards may be exceptionally small, designed to fit inside a light bulb socket housing or they may be long and skinny, like those intended to replace fluorescent tubes. These LED bars can reach 1.2, 1.5, or even 1.8 meters in length.
You may be assembling LEDs on flexible instead of rigid surfaces.
Whatever your specific job calls for, your equipment needs to be able to handle the boards, both in size and substrate.
COMPONENT PICK UP AND PLACEMENT
LEDs are often irregularly shaped, and they may include a delicate optical lens. When selecting pick-up nozzles, you will want to refer to the assembly and handling information provided by the LED component manufacturer for the correct nozzle size, alignment references, and key parameters such as pick-up location, vacuum, and travel force.
If the LED has an optical lens, you will require a nozzle that does not touch the lens during pick-up and placement. Damage to this delicate lens can affect overall light performance and reliability.
LEDs can also have a tendency to stick to standard pick and place nozzles, causing failed placements when the machine tries to set them down. Teflon-coated or urethane-tipped nozzles can prevent this problem. The machine should also have a blow-off feature: when the part arrives at the placement air, a quick puff of air helps it come off the nozzle.
Vision alignment is also an essential feature for any automated pick and place system intended for LED component placement.
FEEDERS
Motorized feeders are recommended over pneumatic feeders. The abrupt movements of pneumatic feeders can cause LEDs to fall out of the tape sockets or become skewed in the pocket to the point where they become "stuck," causing a picking failure.
