Assembléon has introduced a new screen printer alongside its new MC-12 compact Pick & Place machine at the Imola Technology Days in Imola, Italy. The screen printer screens the exact amount of solder needed by each component, even when large and small components are combined on the same printed circuit board. It has the same user interface as the MC-12, a machine which packs up to 120 feeders into a machine just 1.25 m long and 1.44 m wide. The combination is a new development for Assembléon, and shows its determination to be a complete Pick & Place solution provider.
While interspacings down to 100 µm are no problem for fast and reliable placement by Pick & Place machines, that is not normally true for screen printers. Printed circuit boards usually combine small and large components, which need different amounts of solder to make a reliable connection. Unless screen printers incorporate special features, large components can be left with little solder and small components like 0201(0603 mm) types with too much. That can have serious effects on quality – defective solder printing has been estimated to cause over 50 % of equipment defects.
The new screen printer instead dispenses the exact amount of solder needed by each component. The unique 3S (Single Swing Squeegee) head uses a servo-driven squeegee with variable attack angle which improves repletion (filling levels). The squeegee prints at high quality with stencil thickness down to 80 to 100 µm, and works with half edging stencils having steps from 30 to 50 µm. Stencil cleaning is performed during PCB transport, using a fast wet or dry system using vacuum cleaning. Operation is simple and, besides sharing the same software platform as the MC-12, the screen printer uses the same vision technology.
With a top speed of 36 k components per hour, the MC-12 has a space productivity of 20 k components per hour per square meter – the most productive on the market. As standard, it handles large boards of 510 x 460 mm and features a component side-view camera, a complete set of software options and an easy to use graphical user interface.
The MC-12 has a new ultra-thin 12 mm intelligent electrical feeder platform that ensures high flexibility for large mix and minimum changeover environments. The machine also introduces a new recognition system which uses a moving scan camera with advanced optics. The moving scan camera also includes a side view, and simultaneously measures the components in both X and Y directions and from the side for world-class accuracy and mount reliability.
EPP Europe 540
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