Z-AXIS Invests in Through-Hole and Mixed-Technology PCB Assembly

Reading time ( words)

Z-AXIS, Inc. has upgraded and expanded its production lines for through-hole and mixed-technology printed circuit board (PCB) assembly at its contract design and manufacturing center near Rochester, NY.

The newly-revamped production line features 30-foot adjustable extruded aluminum board handling rails, custom LED task lighting, CAM software with electronic assembly instructions for each station, and a conveyor to transport boards through inspection after wave solder and depaneling.

The upgraded production line supports a single-piece flow of PCB assemblies through component insertion, wave solder, in-line inspection, depaneling, QC, testing, and burn-in. Single-piece flow is an alternative to the common practice of running batches of boards through the individual steps, sometimes days apart. Single-piece flow allows Z-AXIS to note and implement corrections or process improvements immediately, rather than on future batches.

Through-hole components are essential in many electronic products, such as high-power boards.

“At Z-AXIS, nearly 75% of the boards we run are mixed-technology, with both through-hole and surface mount technology (SMT) components,” said Michael Allen, President of Z-AXIS.  “While many contract manufacturers consider through-hole assembly to be a distraction from their SMT business, we continue to invest in both areas. This enables us to produce mixed-technology PCB assemblies, at reasonable cost and high quality, in the USA.”

Earlier this year, the company announced a million-dollar investment in SMT assembly equipment, creating two identical high-speed, high-mix SMT lines and a separate SMT new product introduction (NPI) line. 

01/20/2021 | Nolan Johnson, I-Connect007

Nolan Johnson gets an update from Tom Forsythe on KYZEN’s Tech 2 Tech sessions. These brief 15-minute sessions were set up during the pandemic by KYZEN for customers, prospects, and new engineers around cleaning, and have since found traction with their manufacturers, reps and distributors.

01/04/2021 | I-Connect007 Editorial Team

X=Xc – 1 is a conceptual equation for continuous improvement. You define X and work to reduce it by a factor of 1. This could be one work hour, one process step, one day less in a cycle, and so on. We recently met with Dr. Ron Lasky to discuss the concept of X=Xc – 1 and get his advice on generating enthusiasm among readers and the next generation about continuous improvement. As this discussion illustrates, many process improvements are small in scale, not yearlong, major efforts.

12/31/2020 | I-Connect007

As 2020 comes to a close, the I-Connect007 Editorial Team takes a look back at its most read articles. Here are the top 10 reads in SMT from the past year.