PCB News - Surface SMT Patch Technology in China's Manufacturing Industry

The degree of automation of electronic equipment is a measure of whether a country is a strong electronic manufacturing country. Domestic electronic complete SMT (Surface Mount Technology) manufacturing equipment has made great progress in printing presses, reflow soldering, AOI (automatic optical inspection) equipment and other links, while the most critical placement machines (except small placement machines) in the SMT production line are still No one company can produce, and it is still controlled by Japan, Germany, South Korea, and the United States, facing severe financial, technical, and standard issues. To realize the dream of a powerful country in electronics manufacturing, it is necessary to take the road of independent research and development of SMT equipment, and concentrate superior forces to break through the predicament of the industrialization of placement machines.

SMT production line mainly includes: placement machine, printing machine, SPI (solder paste detector), wave soldering equipment, reflow soldering equipment, AOI testing equipment, X-Ray testing equipment, rework workstations, etc. The technologies involved include: mounting, soldering, semiconductor packaging, assembly equipment design, circuit forming technology, functional design simulation technology, etc. At present, more than 80% of electronic products in developed countries such as Japan and the United States use SMT. Among them, network communications, computers and consumer electronics are the main application areas, and the market share is about 35%, 28%, and 28% respectively.

Among them, the placement machine is a device used to achieve high-speed, high-precision, and fully automatic placement of components. It is related to the efficiency and accuracy of the SMT production line. It is the most critical and complex equipment, accounting for about 60% of the investment in the entire SMT production line. above. At present, the placement machine has developed into a high-speed optical centering placement machine, and is developing towards multi-function, flexibility, and modularization. Domestic companies have emerged in the printing, welding, testing and other links with more powerful companies, such as Nitto's welding equipment and printing equipment, Shenzhou Vision's AOI inspection equipment, and UFX's X-Ray inspection equipment. At present, reducing labor costs and enhancing the level of automation are the fundamental requirements for the transformation and upgrading of manufacturing technology, and it has also brought strong demand for SMT equipment. High performance, ease of use, flexibility and environmental protection are one of the main development trends of SMT equipment.

On the one hand, higher requirements are put forward for the complexity, accuracy, process and specifications of production and manufacturing; on the other hand, the cost of labor and other factors is rising, facing the dual demands of cost and efficiency. The above two reasons have given birth to automated, intelligent and flexible manufacturing, processing and assembly, system assembly, packaging and testing. At the same time, high-efficiency, low-power, and low-cost are brought about by high-speed production lines and miniaturization of equipment. For placement machines, the demand for high-speed multi-function placement machines that can meet the dual advantages of production efficiency and multi-function is gradually increasing, and the production mode of dual-channel placement can reach about 100,000 CPH.

With the intensification of competition in the electronics industry, more stringent environmental protection requirements for cleaning and PCB lead-free solder applications, and the ability to comply with the trend of lower cost and more miniaturization, put forward higher requirements for electronic manufacturing equipment. Electronic equipment is developing in the direction of high precision, high speed, easier use, more environmentally friendly, and more flexible production lines. The high-speed head and multi-function head of the SMT placement machine can be switched arbitrarily; the placement head is changed to a dispensing head to become a dispensing machine. The stability of printing and placement accuracy will be higher, and the flexibility of parts and PCB substrate changes will be stronger.