PCB milling has advantages for both PCB prototyping and some special PCB designs. And it doesn’t need to fabricate the circuit board with chemicals that may be the biggest advantage. On one hand, it needs to take time to outsource as creating a prototype. The other one is to make a circuit board in-house. However, there will have some problems with chemicals and disposing thereof using the wet process for in-house production.

In this passage, we are going to provide you all the information of PCB equipment. If you are going to learn more about PCB equipment and the function, please check and read the content below.

If you want to order PCB product, please check and custom your order online. 

What equipment is used to PCB assembly?

The Solder Paste Printing Machine

The first significant piece of assembly equipment is the Solder Paste Printing Machine. This machine holds the PCB locked in place in the automated paste printer. Then, using proper amounts, a squeegee applies solder paste on the pads.

Next, a blade drags across the stencil and spreads the solder paste evenly in the holes, so only the areas of later contact get a layer of the glue. The stencil is removed by the machine after.

If all went well, the solder paste should now be where the components will be placed later.

The Solder Paste Inspection (SPI) Machine

SMD soldering issues are often traced to cheap solder paste printing. Any mistakes at this step can mean that the assembly overall is not as reliable or robust as it should be.

Therefore, the next step is to inspect the solder paste is appropriately printed onto the board using an SPI machine.

The SPI machine uses cameras to capture 3D images and evaluate the solder paste through solder volume, alignment, and height. It can also identify unsuitable sizes and imperfections so manufacturers can correct them.

The Pick and Place Machine

This machine picks components and places them on the board. It’s perhaps the most obvious step of the assembly process and the most fruitful to observe. Traditionally, this stage was painstakingly done by hand using tweezers.

But thanks to progress in technology, manufacturers have now automated this step. The machine suctions up SMT components and places them accurately on top of the solder paste in the pre-programmed positions.

They’re put down at high speeds and can place up to 30,000 components an hour.

In PCB assembly, there are 4 main stages of SMT, or Surface Mount Technology assembly using the reflow method, which are paste application, automated component placement, soldering, and inspection (plus testing, if requested). The basic equipment required for PCB assembly includes:

·  Solder Paste Printing machine

·  Solder Paste Inspection (SPI) machine

·  Glue Dispensing machine

·  Pick-and-Place machine

·  Reflow Soldering machine

·  Wave Soldering machine (for through-hole components)

·  Automatic Optical Inspection (AOI) machine

·  In-Circuit Test (ICT) Fixture

·  Functional Validation Test (FVT) Fixture

What is the importance of PCB Equipment?

Medical equipment manufacturing is a tightly controlled process to ensure that the products built are of the highest quality. To accomplish this, manufacturers must keep the following goals in mind:

·  The product has to work in all circumstances, and therefore must have a more robust design than standard consumer products.

·  The product has to be safe to operate in its expected conditions. Medical equipment can be used in a variety of environments, and users need to be able to operate the equipment without fear of shock or failure.

·  The product has to be designed according to applicable industry standards, such as ISO 13485. Among other things, this standard defines traceability requirements so that you can quickly find out which parts are used in which devices in case there is ever a reported problem with a specific component.

·  The product has to be built by a manufacturer that carries the applicable licenses to build medical devices, such as the medical device manufacturing license of the State of California.

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