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Fully automated PCB manufacturing is unattainable
The automation of PCB manufacturing plants is mainly divided into two different but mutually influencing areas: the automation of production lines and individual manufacturing equipment and the automation of factory management systems. David W. Bergman, IPC's vice president of technical standards and international cooperation, tried to give a quantitative description of the automation level of manufacturing equipment on the production line. He said: "From the perspective of using automated equipment or machines, automation can be divided into several types: semi-manual, machine-assisted, manual-assisted, semi-automated and fully automated. On the whole, the automation of PCB manufacturing still has considerable It’s a long way to go. My personal opinion is that the most automated type of production will fall into the category of'human assistance'."
Bergman's discussion of the degree of equipment automation comes from his observation of history and reality. He believes that there are some process steps that machines may never replace humans. He said: "There is a saying called'Island of Automation', which has been circulating in the industry for nearly 20 years. It means that highly automated production steps such as electroplating, drilling, and wiring are used by a large number of manual or semi-manual processes. Surrounded by production steps. Individual companies have advanced logistics transmission equipment to assist logistics transportation, but the pressing of multilayer boards and the subsequent verification of optical inspection still require considerable manual intervention."
Some people are not as conservative as Bergman’s estimates of the degree of automation of the current and future production lines. Li Linyan, the business director of the equipment supplier Ambion’s Asia-Pacific region, took the special-shaped component assembly, a process that traditionally must rely on manual work, as an example to illustrate more manual operations. Will be replaced by machines. He estimated that in the future, the proportion of manual work on the production line will be limited to less than 5%. Li Linyan explained: "Traditionally, special-shaped devices rely on manual insertion or placement. Although the initial investment for automatic special-shaped device insertion or placement is relatively large, I believe that manual operation will eventually become history in this field. The more fundamental reason is that manufacturers are constantly pursuing efficiency and reliability. At the same time, suppliers of special-shaped devices are also making special-shaped devices themselves more "standard" products suitable for production automation."
However, according to Bergman's definition, 100% automation of the production line, or full automation in the true sense, is never possible. He said: "Automated production equipment is sometimes very expensive, and people must carefully weigh the benefits, costs, and its impact on the process. Undoubtedly, mass production is more inclined to use automated equipment in nature, but PCB After all, the circuit board is a customized product, which involves a large number of related production steps. Therefore, my personal opinion is that it is almost impossible to achieve economically cost-effective full automation."
