PCB Pick and Place Systems

- an overview, tutorial, summary providing information about the basics of PCB pick and place systems for placing surface mount technology (SMT) components onto printed circuit boards.

Pick and place systems, pick and place machines or pick and place robots as they can be known are widely used in the manufacture of today's surface mount technology SMT electronics circuit boards. Using these pick and place systems or pick and place machines, it is possible to accurately place large numbers of small, or large components quickly and accurately onto circuit boards.

With some electronic circuit boards using over 1000 surface mount technology (SMT) components, many of which are very small, and most of the components requiring very accurate placement, it is not feasible to place them manually. Accordingly pick and place machines are used that can place all the components accurately and in a repeatable fashion.

What is a pick and place machine?

Pick and place machines are used in the manufacture if electronic circuit boards for the placement of Surface Mount Technology (SMT) components onto boards. They pick the components, typically from specially prepared reels or other packaged forms of components, and place them onto printed circuit boards. The pick and place machines are pre-programmed with the information about component positions so that they know where to place the components. This programme is normally developed directly from the printed circuit board design information.