- Home /
Introduction to pick and place equipment selection
For most purposes, selecting pick and place machine can be broken down into three simple steps:
- Understanding how equipment is specified by manufacturers.
- Calculating your product requirements:
- Speed/capacity
- Maximum and minimum component sizes
- Precision and accuracy
- Board or panel size
- Number and types of component feeders
- Benchmarking machines from various manufacturers against your requirements.
There are special considerations that differ based on the type of manufacturing you'll be doing. Are you an original equipment manufacturer (OEM)—in other words, are you manufacturing your own product?—or are you a contract or custom manufacturer, where you either manufacture someone's else's products or you custom manufacture your line of products based on your customer's needs. Perhaps you do a mix of both.
Contract assemblers and custom manufacturers need more flexibility in their placement capabilities and faster, easier job changeovers while OEMs doing some or all of their production in-house are looking for accuracy, speed and ease of use.
If this is your first pick and place machine, the availability of onsite installation, training and support from experienced, factory-trained technicians may be a big factor in determining which machine you purchase. Having someone help ensure you get your production off on the right foot can make all the difference for a young or growing company.
You may also have specific production needs—perhaps you're doing prototyping, or LED components are part of your assembly mix.
SMT/circuit board assembly production process basics
You may have been assembling your boards by hand up to this point, and you're looking to be able to produce more boards faster. Or you may have been outsourcing the assembly to a contract electronics assembly house. Either way, it's helpful to know some basics about SMT production before you make any costly investments in equipment.
The basic equipment for PCB production are the screen or stencil printer, the pick and place machine and the reflow oven.
- The screen printer applies solder paste to the PCB on the pad locations.
- The pick and place machine picks up, inspects and places SMT components on programmed locations.
- The reflow oven brings the PCB assembly up to a temperature high enough to liquefy the solder paste (this is called "liquidus").
When the PCB assembly cools, it is finished and ready to go.
For mixed-technology assemblies (containing both surface mount and through-hole components), a wave solder machine may also be required to solder the through-hole leads.
You may also need board defluxing, stencil cleaning, and automated optical inspection equipment.
The following presentation provides more information about the circuit board assembly process:
-
SMT Assembly Lines
-
SMT Assembly Lines
Turnkey solutions consisting of stencil printers, pick and place, and reflow soldering for all levels of SMT production. Build your own or choose from pre-configured packages. -
-
-
SMT Stencil Printers
-
SMT Stencil Printers
Wide variety of solder paste printers for any level of precision, automation, and throughput. -
-
-
Pick & Place Machines
-
SMT Pick and Place Machines
Precision pick and place solutions for high-mix SMT assembly are available to place any SMD and to meet a wide range of throughput requirements. -
-
-
Reflow Soldering
-
Reflow Soldering for SMT Manufacturing
Convection and vapor phase reflow systems to meet any production need—inline or batch, lead-free or tin-lead solder. -
-
-
Selective Soldering
-
Selective Soldering Machines
Selective soldering machines include high-precision drop-jet fluxing and 360 wettable nozzles for automated soldering of through-hole components and connectors. -
-
-
BGA / LED / SMD Rework
-
SMD & BGA Rework
Remove, align, place, and solder advanced SMD and BGA components with extreme precision.
-
-
Wave & Dip Soldering
-
Wave Solder Machines & Solder Dipping
Wave solder and solder dipping machines for through-hole and mixed technology assembly.
-
-
AOI & PCB Inspection
-
AOI Machines & PCB Inspection Conveyors
Improve product quality and your manufacturing process with automated optical inspection and inspection conveyors.
-
-
X-Ray Inspection
-
X-Ray Inspection
High-performance x-ray inspection system designed for real time imaging of multilayer PCBs and dense metal BGAs, μBGAs, and chip scale packages.
-
-
PCB Cleaners
-
PCB & Stencil Cleaning Equipment
Environmentally-safe removal of rosin-based, water-soluble, and no-clean flux residues from PCB assemblies.
-
-
Component Counters
-
Component Reel Counters
Get quick, accurate counts of your component inventory.
-
-
Conveyors
-
PCB Conveyors and Board Handling
Automate your assembly line with loaders, unloaders, inline conveyors, and more.
-
-
PCB Depaneling
-
PCB Depaneling Equipment
Quickly and cleanly separate FR4, alumina, and other v-groove boards.
-
-
Dry Boxes
-
Dry Boxes for SMD Storage / Electronic Components
Store moisture-sensitive SMDs and boards or reclaim exposed components to eliminate moisture-related defects.
-
-
Hot Bar Soldering
-
Hot Bar Soldering
Also known as pulse bonding, hot bar soldering solves some of the industry's toughest soldering challenges.
-
-
Lead Forming
-
Lead Forming Machines
Precision cut and bend machines for taped and loose-fed axial and radial components.
-
-
SMD LED Assembly
-
LED Lamp Assembly Equipment
Manncorp offers a complete collection of SMT equipment designed specifically for the manufacturing of LED lighting products.
-
-
Thermal Profilers
-
Thermal Profiling Solutions
Improve your reflow soldering process with thermal profiling tools.
-