What is the PCB Assembly Process?

A PCB assembly process is a process involving several steps to manufacture PCB products used in a wide range of electronic gadgets and devices. 

 

When you have a plan to invest in the PCB assembly services hiring a suitable company, it is helpful to know about the different stages of the assembly process. The experts of the company will give you fair ideas about the procedures. The article here tries to provide a rough overview in this regard. Read on.

 

Preparing the solder paste

 

The first step of PCB Assembly Services is thorough and accurate preparation of the solder paste. It is a mixture of solder and flux. The manufacturer applies the solder paste to the areas of the circuit board where it needs soldering. Such areas are usually the typical component pads. A device known as a solder screen is used to apply the solder paste. The experts carefully monitor the amount of paste on the specific regions of the board.

 

Picking and Placing 

 

It is the second stage of the process. The manufacturer passes the board through an equipped machine that has reels of various components. The PCB assembly manufacturing procedure focuses on picking the suitable components and placing them on the regions of the board already having the solder paste. In most cases, the machine that performs the task is programmed by the experts. The speed, accuracy and other attributes of the machine can be modulated. 

 

Soldering

 

It is one of the most crucial aspects of the assembly process. After the components are placed on the board, it is passed through the soldering machine. In a few cases, a wave soldering machine is used to do the job. But nowadays, such practice is rare. A sophisticated soldering machine nicely manages the technical aspects of the task. A technique known as reflow soldering is generally used at this stage of the assembly process. The work progresses to the next stage.

 

Inspection

 

As the title suggests, the boards are thoroughly inspected by manufacturing experts at this stage, after the completion of the soldering procedure. Manual inspection is not at all a choice. It is not efficient. Also, it takes a lot of time. There is no practicality. Instead, machine inspection is done. The right method used is an optical inspection of the circuit boards, which is totally automatic. It saves a lot of time and hassles. Such automatic inspection can fluently detect misplaced components or poor joints.

 

Testing

 

It is obvious to test the final product before it leaves the manufacturing plant. You need to check its performance level, monitoring a few crucial parameters. The manufacturing experts, in this case, too, conduct the required tests to oversee the performance of the PCB boards. They take note of the results of the test. The recorded results help in further improvement of the product. There are many ways to conduct testing. It is the discretion of the manufacturer to use a particular testing method or a cluster of testing procedures.

 

Feedback

 

Monitoring the outputs is the main focus in the feedback stage of the manufacturing process. It apparently marks the last step of the whole process. Detection of failures, if any, is done. The manufacturers investigate the reasons for the failures and work on them. After quick detection, necessary measures are implemented by the experts to keep everything organized and accurate. 

 

Discuss the process with professionals

 

It is important to discuss the various stage of the process with top-tier PCB manufacturing professionals. You can get lots of details, including the technical dimensions at each stage of the procedure. You can ask for a guideline from the experts.

Resource: www.evernote.com/shard