Types and Features of Excellent SMT Machines - Hayawin

What is SMT?

Surface mount technology (SMT) is the process wherein components are mounted onto the surface of a printed circuit board. The components are designed specifically to be directly mounted, rather than hardwired, onto the circuit board for the vast majority of electronics.

With competitive price and timely delivery, Hayawin sincerely hope to be your supplier and partner.

A Surface Mount Technology (SMT) machine represents the latest generation of high-tech equipment assisting PCB manufacturers in resolving SMT assembly challenges. These machines streamline SMT assembly processes by employing fewer components, improving performance, and mitigating lead resistance and inductance issues.

This article will explore the various types and features of an effective SMT machine.

What do SMT machines do?

SMT machines are employed in the manufacturing of surface mount printed circuit boards (SMT PCBs). They encompass soldering equipment, component placement machines, and ovens.

These machines enable PCB companies to incorporate additional features onto smaller boards without relying on through-hole wire leads for component connections. Additionally, SMT equipment facilitates the printing and placement of elements on both sides of a PCB.

Types of SMT Machines

The process of placing electrical components on a PCB involves up to 6 different machines. Consequently, the input from all these machines collectively determines the output of an SMT machine.

Below is a breakdown of the various types of SMT machines:

-Pick-and-place machines:

These machines come in various types, including:

- Manual pick-and-place machines:

This is the most widely used and cost-effective SMT machine for modular PCB assembly. An SMT operator performs the picking and placement procedure manually on this machine. Overall, it's an excellent choice for unsupervised high-speed operations.

- Semi-automatic pick-and-place machines:

Unlike the manual version, this type features advanced computer interface technology and vision assistance, making the operator's job easier.

- Automated picking and placement:

Fully automated pick-and-place machines incorporate picking and placement centering methods to enhance SMT productivity.

- SMT Curing Oven:

The curing oven is responsible for curing adhesive and baking solder paste. The baking process depends on the production volume of the machine.

- Screen Printer for Solder Paste:

The screen printing machine applies solder paste onto the PCB through screen printing. Typically, this process occurs prior to the assembly process by an SMT Machine Operator.

- Reflow Soldering Machine:

This machine facilitates the flow of solder from surface mount devices (SMD) to the Printed Circuit Board (PCB).

- Solvent Cleaning Equipment:

For more Smt Pcb Loaderinformation, please contact us. We will provide professional answers.

After soldering, there may be excess solder or flux residue. Solvent cleaning equipment is used to remove these residues.

- Inspection Equipment:

This machine detects and addresses any flaws found on the PCB during the inspection process.

SMT Feeder:

Improvements in feeder technology generally impact PCB assembly capabilities and production volume. SMT feeders are available in various shapes and sizes, depending on the packaging used for different mount components. For example:

Tape Feeder:

Tape feeders feature advanced capabilities, making them suitable for high-precision placement machines.

Tray Feeder:

Tray feeders are available in single-layer and multi-layer structures.

Stick Feeder:

Stick feeders and vibration feeders assist in loading components into the mounter.

Tube Feeder:

Tube feeders ensure accurate entry of all components into the placement head.

How to Choose the Best SMT Machine?

Before selecting an SMT machine, several factors should be taken into consideration:

1. Part Size:

The size of the electronic components you intend to place plays a crucial role. Ensure that the machine's size matches the size of the components.

2. Machine Accuracy:

Accuracy is a key factor in choosing an SMT machine. Look for machines with a standard accuracy of 0." in Surface Mount Technology.

3. Machine Repeatability:

In addition to accuracy, repeatability is essential for consistent performance. Opt for machines with programmed software solutions that ensure maximum output.

4. Placement Speed:

Consider the speed at which the machine picks up, checks, and installs electronic components. Look for machines that meet the IPC standard for rapid placement.

5. Prices and Cost:

Choose a high-speed pick-and-place machine that offers features corresponding to its price. Ensure that the machine's capabilities align with your budget and requirements.

Summary:

SMT machines streamline work processes, reduce expenses, and boost production capacity. Before purchasing an SMT machine, it's essential to understand its operation, the various types available, programming procedures, and its key qualities.

We trust that our article has been helpful. If you have any further inquiries or wish to delve deeper into the topic of SMT machines, please don't hesitate to reach out to us. Our team is dedicated to addressing any questions you may have.

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EngF

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• Posts: 4
• Country:

recommendation for small volume SMT assembly

« on: October 28, , 04:13:26 pm » Good Morning/Afternoon Gentz,

I am planing to start-up an small volume smt assembly for own developed products. I have been searching a lot for suitable machines and you know how many copycat and bad quality machines available. while searching a come cross this forum and red couple of threads and I hope you can help find a reliable machines supplier. here are what I'm looking for

• Stencil machine/ automatic solder dispenser (not sure if dispenser is reliable technique)
• PnP Machine (red about Yvi110 but not sure if there are any problem with custom)
• re-flow oven
• conformal coating machine (to be specific also with chemical should be good with high relative humidity some time reaches 83% and temp 50+ under sun and 49- in shadow) 

I know china services is cheap for low/mid volume but lead time is highly important for me. looking forward for your replays

Fahad

SMTech

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• Posts: 944
• Country:

Re: recommendation for small volume SMT assembly

« Reply #1 on: October 28, , 10:42:22 pm » Realistically dispensing is not an option unless you want to spend a LOT of money.

PnP - you need to define your interpretation of low volume both in terms of how many boards and how may components are on those boards. You also need to work out what is important to you on the machine - easy to use software, size, price, feeders, capability, face to face support because these things affect what you should even be considering.

Printing- you still need some of the answers from above, basic manual printers are what they are, there's a few differences in the shrinking semi-automatic range and lots of old or new fully automatic.

Reflow - yeah still questions, although most low volumes should be quite well suited with Vapor Phase which can be both compact and effective.

Conformal coating - well there a couple of brands out there that are pretty big in that department but before you get into automated machines, plenty of things can be done using a spray gun and suitable masking but this is a complex subject with all sorts of options and requirements like cleaning, ventilation, curing etc. Read some white papers, check out what other people who offer the service tell you on their websites etc etc. The following users thanked this post: EngF

Mangozac

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• Posts: 492
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Re: recommendation for small volume SMT assembly

« Reply #2 on: October 28, , 11:00:09 pm » Indeed, "small volume" means very different things to different people! More specifically you need to indicate number of boards per year, number of components per board and number of unique components per board. Rough ballparks are good enough.

Psi

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Re: recommendation for small volume SMT assembly

« Reply #3 on: October 28, , 11:19:19 pm » I did very small volume SMT assembly myself at home over a period of 3 years or so.

I needed around 10-20 units a week which took about 1 day or so to complete.
Depending how much youtube/music i had running while i worked

- I applied solder paste using a stencil and squeegee.
It does take some practice to get good, but once you know how it's pretty easy to get a nice sharp solder paste image applied.
This step is very quick once you're setup with a place to sit the pcbs and the stencil hinged down from one side.
It would take like 2min to do 10 boards.
One thing i learns was to use good quality solder paste.  I always had random results with chipquik but when i switched to a more expensive brand that went away.  (before someone asked, yes, i kept it in the fridge).  Getting the paste to the right consistency where you get sharp images is probably the most tricky part of the process. Alignment is tricky but totally find once you get the hang of it.

- Placing parts.
I setup a vacuum pickup tool by plumbing a syringe into the solder fume extractor port on my Aoyue 968 soldering station.
I added a T valve into the line where i could adjust the suction on it by closing/opening one of the ports.
I had no real time control over the suction while picking and placing. I just set it so it could pickup small parts /small chips etc.. and left it set to that. It worked great. The solder paste was sticky enough to overcome the vacuum and hold the part to the PCB.

I had a lazy susan (rotating table) setup where i had PCBs placed around the edges and bigger/unique parts placed behind them.
This meant i could work under the microscope on each PCB, placing its parts and then just rotate the lazy susan to the next PCB and its parts.
For passives i used the vacuum tool to pull parts out of cut tape. Doing all of one value on all boards then grabbing a new value and rotating the table around again  etc..

-Reflow i did in a toaster oven.
This worked fine, never had any problem with it.
Used DMM temp probe and set variac to correct voltage to get 215 degC
Timed 4min and they were done. « Last Edit: October 28, , 11:41:21 pm by Psi » Greek letter 'Psi' (not Pounds per Square Inch) The following users thanked this post: I wanted a rude username, EngF

Alicelllly

• Contributor
• Posts: 13
• Country:

Re: recommendation for small volume SMT assembly

« Reply #4 on: October 29, , 01:54:55 am » Hi Fahad，

Greetings, this is Alice from Neoden.

What is your smallest component size and max PCB size?
For small volume SMT assembly, Neoden3V or Neoden4 SMT lines might be suitable:

• Stencil machine/manual high precision solder printer FP
• PnP Machine/Neoden3V or Neoden4
• re-flow oven/ IN6

Attached 2 photos for your reference. No hesitate to contact if you have any requirement.

Best regards,
Alice
:
:+86
Skype: Alice-Neoden SMT machines manufacturer, pick and place machine, reflow oven and solder printer.

Contact: ; +; Skype: Alice-Neoden

EngF

• Newbie
• Posts: 4
• Country:

Re: recommendation for small volume SMT assembly

« Reply #5 on: October 29, , 02:01:44 pm »

Realistically dispensing is not an option unless you want to spend a LOT of money.

PnP - you need to define your interpretation of low volume both in terms of how many boards and how may components are on those boards. You also need to work out what is important to you on the machine - easy to use software, size, price, feeders, capability, face to face support because these things affect what you should even be considering.

Printing- you still need some of the answers from above, basic manual printers are what they are, there's a few differences in the shrinking semi-automatic range and lots of old or new fully automatic.

Reflow - yeah still questions, although most low volumes should be quite well suited with Vapor Phase which can be both compact and effective.

Conformal coating - well there a couple of brands out there that are pretty big in that department but before you get into automated machines, plenty of things can be done using a spray gun and suitable masking but this is a complex subject with all sorts of options and requirements like cleaning, ventilation, curing etc. Read some white papers, check out what other people who offer the service tell you on their websites etc etc.

First and for most thank for replay
in term of PnP:

• Number of boards 5 - 10 packages per month (1 package = 15-17 boards) note:there is expected increase
• No. of components: not finalized yet but one thing in mind is bulky components (Relays)
• proper support and warranty services
• Quality and less failure rate

Printing I am already consider the manual and just needed to confirm what you said about dispenser

Reflow Vapor phase more please (Just search for it and basically provide more uniformity than IR reflow).

EngF

• Newbie
• Posts: 4
• Country:

Re: recommendation for small volume SMT assembly

« Reply #6 on: October 30, , 03:11:37 pm »

I did very small volume SMT assembly myself at home over a period of 3 years or so.

I needed around 10-20 units a week which took about 1 day or so to complete.
Depending how much youtube/music i had running while i worked

- I applied solder paste using a stencil and squeegee.
It does take some practice to get good, but once you know how it's pretty easy to get a nice sharp solder paste image applied.
This step is very quick once you're setup with a place to sit the pcbs and the stencil hinged down from one side.
It would take like 2min to do 10 boards.
One thing i learns was to use good quality solder paste.  I always had random results with chipquik but when i switched to a more expensive brand that went away.  (before someone asked, yes, i kept it in the fridge).  Getting the paste to the right consistency where you get sharp images is probably the most tricky part of the process. Alignment is tricky but totally find once you get the hang of it.

- Placing parts.
I setup a vacuum pickup tool by plumbing a syringe into the solder fume extractor port on my Aoyue 968 soldering station.
I added a T valve into the line where i could adjust the suction on it by closing/opening one of the ports.
I had no real time control over the suction while picking and placing. I just set it so it could pickup small parts /small chips etc.. and left it set to that. It worked great. The solder paste was sticky enough to overcome the vacuum and hold the part to the PCB.

I had a lazy susan (rotating table) setup where i had PCBs placed around the edges and bigger/unique parts placed behind them.
This meant i could work under the microscope on each PCB, placing its parts and then just rotate the lazy susan to the next PCB and its parts.
For passives i used the vacuum tool to pull parts out of cut tape. Doing all of one value on all boards then grabbing a new value and rotating the table around again  etc..

-Reflow i did in a toaster oven.
This worked fine, never had any problem with it.
Used DMM temp probe and set variac to correct voltage to get 215 degC
Timed 4min and they were done.

i salute you  couple of question

how long did it take you to do it right
how many failed attempted board did you get?

all your doing is amazing but thing what if there is increase in volume ?

jmelson

• Super Contributor
• Posts:
• Country:

Re: recommendation for small volume SMT assembly

« Reply #7 on: October 30, , 07:16:07 pm »

how long did it take you to do it right

I bought a used Philips P&P machine in .  I had it up and running in a week, having never seen a P&P machine in person before.  I did ask a lot of questions on SMTNET and got useful info from a number of people.  The more complex issue was learning how to make my own solder stencils using essentially PCB manufacturing equipment.  Dry film resist, FeCl etching.
Quote

how many failed attempted board did you get?

Well, very few, actually.  The first board was smoked before I figured out to put the thermocouple into a plated-through hole in the board, so as to measure actual board temperature, not the air in the oven.

Then, it took a while to learn the secrets of solder aperture sizing.  For parts, you can use a stencil aperture equal to the pad size.  For anything smaller, you want to reduce the aperture to be smaller than the pad.  As the pads and spacing get smaller (like TSSOP) you have to reduce apertures to about 60% of the pad area, or more.  And, I use .003" (.075mm) stencils.
If you put too much solder paste on the board, you get bridges, and even more causes the chips to float away on lakes of solder.  This was the hardest thing do get up to speed on.  But, I was making usable boards, they just needed a little rework after reflow to fix the solder bridges.

Good solder is extremely important.  I have only found two that are very good.  I was referred to Warton Metals, and imported a jar from the UK to the US at great expense.  Now, I can get Henkel GC10 in the US under the Loctite brand.  This works so much better than a number of other brands (Chip_Quik,  AIM, Kester, Indium, etc.)  I pretty much only do lead-free, so that is a bit more demanding than leaded solders.

I have done over boards with hand-applied stencil, P&P and toaster oven reflow.
Quote

all your doing is amazing but thing what if there is increase in volume ?

Well, if volume increases, you can buy a conveyorized reflow oven and whatever level of stencil printer fits your needs, and maybe upgrade the P&P too.

Jon

EngF

• Newbie
• Posts: 4
• Country:

Re: recommendation for small volume SMT assembly

« Reply #8 on: October 30, , 08:28:41 pm »

how long did it take you to do it right

I bought a used Philips P&P machine in .  I had it up and running in a week, having never seen a P&P machine in person before.  I did ask a lot of questions on SMTNET and got useful info from a number of people.  The more complex issue was learning how to make my own solder stencils using essentially PCB manufacturing equipment.  Dry film resist, FeCl etching.
Quote

how many failed attempted board did you get?

Well, very few, actually.  The first board was smoked before I figured out to put the thermocouple into a plated-through hole in the board, so as to measure actual board temperature, not the air in the oven.

Then, it took a while to learn the secrets of solder aperture sizing.  For parts, you can use a stencil aperture equal to the pad size.  For anything smaller, you want to reduce the aperture to be smaller than the pad.  As the pads and spacing get smaller (like TSSOP) you have to reduce apertures to about 60% of the pad area, or more.  And, I use .003" (.075mm) stencils.
If you put too much solder paste on the board, you get bridges, and even more causes the chips to float away on lakes of solder.  This was the hardest thing do get up to speed on.  But, I was making usable boards, they just needed a little rework after reflow to fix the solder bridges.

Good solder is extremely important.  I have only found two that are very good.  I was referred to Warton Metals, and imported a jar from the UK to the US at great expense.  Now, I can get Henkel GC10 in the US under the Loctite brand.  This works so much better than a number of other brands (Chip_Quik,  AIM, Kester, Indium, etc.)  I pretty much only do lead-free, so that is a bit more demanding than leaded solders.

I have done over boards with hand-applied stencil, P&P and toaster oven reflow.
Quote

all your doing is amazing but thing what if there is increase in volume ?

Well, if volume increases, you can buy a conveyorized reflow oven and whatever level of stencil printer fits your needs, and maybe upgrade the P&P too.

Jon

very informative. I see alot of people mentioning old PnP Yamaha Philips and GSM which something good business wise but with old comes alot of risk. For example in the Industry that I currently work in we will look for (probability of failure on demand, Mean time between failure, and spare part availability) of the equipment. second to me is inspection as most used PnP is overseas which is a challenge.

Fahad

jmelson

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Re: recommendation for small volume SMT assembly

« Reply #9 on: October 31, , 08:22:41 pm »

very informative. I see alot of people mentioning old PnP Yamaha Philips and GSM which something good business wise but with old comes alot of risk. For example in the Industry that I currently work in we will look for (probability of failure on demand, Mean time between failure, and spare part availability) of the equipment. second to me is inspection as most used PnP is overseas which is a challenge.

Fahad

Well, we only run our P&P machine a few times a month, doing relatively small runs of boards.  Anywhere from 12 to 60 boards one run.  Our machine has been pretty reliable.  We had a conveyor optical sensor go bad early on, and it caused it to drop a few completed boards on the floor.  That was hard to diagnose until it went to a near-solid failure.  Then it was easy to be sure the sensor, itself was the bad unit.  I've had a few sticky air cylinders, the vacuum/suction valves on the nozzles need to be cleaned yearly as they suck up the lube oil.  Then I had the rotation motor's commutator get
clogged with copper dust.  That took some diagnosing and guesswork, as the machine's error message was VERY vague.  And, I've had a few air hoses break, but these were VERY easy to diagnose.

Anyway, none of these problems really shut down the production line for very long, just caused some worrying, until the problem was understood.

Jon

GerardG

• Regular Contributor
• Posts: 78
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• Pick and Place support manager

Re: recommendation for small volume SMT assembly

« Reply #10 on: November 01, , 03:45:15 pm » Hello Fahad,

If you WANT to do some dispensing it is possible to use the Voltera V-One.
No hassle to make or buy a stencil. You just downsize the pads of the gerber and start production.

You can ask some information from voltera.io

I used both methods, for prototyping use dispensing and using metal stencils in an fp-.