Operations - Components Placement
SMD components placement involves the steps described below.
Placing PCB laminate on the machine bed
As instructed, put PCB laminate and spacer on the machine bed. You can use Manual control popup to move the machine’s head out of the way.
Inserting Pick-and-place head in the machine
As instructed, insert pick-and-place head in the machine and make all necessary connections.
Reviewing components list
The program presents you a list of all the components that are going to be placed. That’s a good moment to make sure you have everything at hand.
Placing the components
The program will then guide you through the process of placing of all those components. For each type of the components you will be presented with two screens.
In the first screen the program asks you to put a reel or tape with components on a components panel, and specify the following values:
| Parameter | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Components panel | Type of components panel. They differ in sizes of pockets for tapes |
| Row | Row in components panel where the tape with requested components is placed |
| Component pitch | Pitch of the components in tape |
These values are needed on the next stage to calculate the location of the components on the panel.
Next screen gives you control over placing operation itself:
Component being placed combo box contains the list of components of this type.
Target pane contains coordinates of the selected component. It automatically updates with the data read from centroid file.
Pickup pane contains coordinates of component location on the panel. The coordinates are automatically calculated based on the information provided in the previous screen. It is possible to edit the coordinates to compensate for imperfections of needle and tape or to manually override pickup location, if necessary. Small adjustments can be made using Up and Down arrow keys on a keyboard. Value can be overridden by typing a new value and pressing Enter.
Go to pickup button positions pick-and-place head directly above the component on the panel.
Pickup button picks up a component above which the head is currently located.
Go to target button positions pick-and-place head directly above the component place on the PCB.
Pickup&go button combines all three previous functions and is enabled after successfully placing the first component of a given type.
Placement offsets pane is enabled after Go to target button is pressed. It allows to compensate for whatever errors involved in the process. Small adjustments to the offsets fields can be made with Up and Down arrow keys. Values can be overridden by typing a new value and pressing Enter. Offsets are memorized and reused later in the placement process based on component angle.
Manual control pane allows to move Z axis during both pick up and placement stages, allowing for more precise adjustment.
It also contains buttons Move head away which gets the head as far back as possible to provide an access to the board, and Vacuum off button which turns off vacuum generator in case something went wrong and the component was not picked up.
After the component is picked up and offsets are adjusted, button Place places the component on the board and either selects next component in Component being placed combo box and updates pick up location for the next place in the tape, or disables pick up pane after the last component of this type has been placed.
Continue button proceeds either to next component type, if there are more components to be placed or to the final screen of the application.