First, the PCBs are put on the conveyor belt with the board loaders, a Famecs FL-500E Auto Magazine Loader followed by a Famecs FVL-800E Bare Board Loader.
Next, we have to apply the solder paste. The jars are kept in the fridge. Solder paste is printed on the boards through a stencil with a Panasonic KXF-1D3C High Speed Screen Printer. A Famecs FCC-500 Connection Conveyor then passes the boards on.
Putting the components on the board is next. Some components need gentle overnight baking before we can solder them. If we didn't bake them, the humidity trapped in the package would expand during the soldering and may damage of even destroy the component. The baking happens in these two ovens:
They're an OF-02 and an Espec SH-261 Bench-Top Type Temperature (& Humidity) Chamber. The pick and place machines pick the components from their belts and place them on the PCB:
They are a Panasonic KXF-4Z4C Modular High Speed Placement Machine followed by a Panasonic KXF-E64C Modular Multi-functional Placement Machine. The pictures above show the front and rear view. My estimate of the total number of feeders is around 200.
The boards then pass over a Famec FWT-155 Work Table for inspection and any further work needed before they go into the oven, which is a Vitronics Soltec XPM2 Reflow System.
After the oven, the boards chill out on a Famec FCL-1200E Cooling Conveyor and are taken off the belt by a Famecs FU-500E Auto Magazine Unloader. And with this, we've already reached the end of the line:
If any rework is necessary, an ERSA PL550A Precision Placement System with Reflow Process Camera (rework station) is conveniently located a few steps from the SMT line.
