-
- News
- Books
Featured Books
- smt007 Magazine
Latest Issues
Current IssueBox Build
One trend is to add box build and final assembly to your product offering. In this issue, we explore the opportunities and risks of adding system assembly to your service portfolio.
IPC APEX EXPO 2024 Pre-show
This month’s issue devotes its pages to a comprehensive preview of the IPC APEX EXPO 2024 event. Whether your role is technical or business, if you're new-to-the-industry or seasoned veteran, you'll find value throughout this program.
Boost Your Sales
Every part of your business can be evaluated as a process, including your sales funnel. Optimizing your selling process requires a coordinated effort between marketing and sales. In this issue, industry experts in marketing and sales offer their best advice on how to boost your sales efforts.
- Articles
- Columns
Search Console
- Links
- Events
||| MENU - smt007 Magazine
Technologies to Enable Quick-Turn PCB Assemblies
October 21, 2015 | Khurrum Dhanji, Imagineering Inc.Estimated reading time: 2 minutes
Many new and unique processes enable quick-turn assembly in 24 hours rather than days. Latest innovations include state-of-the-art machines, such as the stencil-less jet printer, and a proprietary PCB assembly turnkey quote system that gives customers a quote in minutes—not in days or weeks—and a fully assembled prototype PCB in 24 hours, after receipt of all materials. Multi-day lead times for PCB assembly are a thing of the past as a few advanced thinking assemblers have worked hard to remove the time-related road blocks, enabling quick prototype assembly.
New software such as Instant PCBA Quotes Online allows you to receive a guaranteed quote in minutes. The second major time-related hurdle to be eliminated was the cost of buying and waiting for the solder paste stencil to be manufactured and delivered. A new disruptive technology, the advanced solder paste inkjet, is an in-line soldermask printer that allows instant changes between assembly jobs. Full and instant 3D printing of different thicknesses of solder paste, improved start-to-delivery time for prototype PCB assembly, and significantly improved soldering quality eliminates 90% percent of the rework time.
With reduced product development times, the electronic manufacturer’s requirement for PCB assembly is 24 hours, enabling continued rapid development of a new product that will not stall at the final stage.
Stencil-less Jet Printing
For many years, stencil printing has been the standard and durable method of depositing solder paste on surface mount assembly PCBs, but difficulties often significantly slowed down a change from one product to another in the assembly operation, as well as added cost. A significant challenge in newer, smaller electronics assembly is the huge difference of size among components. Therefore, trying to apply the right amount of solder paste for each component with one stencil is difficult.
The biggest problem is how to produce quick-turn prototypes without disrupting series production that is already running in the line.
Product changeover requires time-consuming tweaks to the stencil printing process, while unnecessarily shutting down an expensive assembly line to change the product. The inability of the stencil’s technology to vary solder paste volume by part, on the run, remains the biggest impact on the soldering quality.
Solder paste parameter optimizing after set up can take considerable time away from production. Frequent changeovers create a bottleneck in assembly speed. Stencil manufacturing and lead time, as well as occasional replacement, add to the delays. Each PCB design and design change requires a new stencil. Thus, stencil costs and two- to three-day time delays can happen with multiple rev changes. Stencil-free jet printing technology has been developed to meet the demand for greater flexibility in modern electronics production, significantly improving the throughput speed. The CAD data (or Gerber data) for a particular PCB, compiled off-line, is sent to the ink jet printer for instant printing.
Suggested Items
Taiyo Circuit Automation Installs New DP3500 into Fuba Printed Circuits, Tunisia
04/25/2024 | Taiyo Circuit AutomationTaiyo Circuit Automation is proud to be partnered with Fuba Printed Circuits, Tunisia part of the OneTech Group of companies, a leading printed circuit board manufacturer based out of Bizerte, Tunisia, on their first installation of Taiyo Circuit Automation DP3500 coater.
Vicor Power Orders Hentec Industries/RPS Automation Pulsar Solderability Testing System
04/24/2024 | Hentec Industries/RPS AutomationHentec Industries/RPS Automation, a leading manufacturer of selective soldering, lead tinning and solderability test equipment, is pleased to announce that Vicor Power has finalized the purchase of a Pulsar solderability testing system.
AIM Solder’s Dillon Zhu to Present on Ultraminiature Soldering at SMTA China East
04/22/2024 | AIMAIM Solder, a leading global manufacturer of solder assembly materials for the electronics industry, is pleased to announce that Dillon Zhu will present on the topic: Ultraminiature Soldering: Techniques, Technologies, and Standards at SMTA China East. This event is being held at the Shanghai World Expo Exhibition & Convention Center from April 24-25.
AIM to Highlight NC259FPA Ultrafine No Clean Solder Paste at SMTA Wisconsin Expo & Tech Forum
04/18/2024 | AIMAIM Solder, a leading global manufacturer of solder assembly materials for the electronics industry, is pleased to announce its participation in the upcoming SMTA Wisconsin Expo & Tech Forum taking place on May 7 at the Four Points by Sheraton | Milwaukee Airport, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
Hentec/RPS Publishes an Essential Guide to Selective Soldering Processing Tech Paper
04/17/2024 | Hentec Industries/RPS AutomationHentec Industries/RPS Automation, a leading manufacturer of selective soldering, lead tinning and solderability test equipment, announces that it has published a technical paper describing the critical process parameters that need to be optimized to ensure optimal results and guarantee the utmost in end-product quality.