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PCB Support in Pick and Place

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#53167

PCB Support in Pick and Place | 13 January, 2008

Hi,

We need to solder a USB plug onto a PCB in our SMT machines, and this is the same type of plug you see on USB storage devices.

It's a very flat connector with 4 SMT pins, however the hard part is the bottom of the connectors is the same level as the bottom of the PCB. So the PCB kind of recesses into the connector.

To solder it we are going to need to support the connector, so would need some kind of smt palette to hold the pcb when it's being loaded on the pick and place machines, so when the connector is placed, it can be supported, and won't fall off the edge of the board.

Does anyone have any ideas on how to do this? Is a palette the way to go?

Regards,

Grant

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#53192

PCB Support in Pick and Place | 15 January, 2008

You might consider assembling these boards on pallets. Search the fine SMTnet Archives for more on pallets. For instance: http://www.smtnet.com/forums/Index.cfm?CFApp=1&Message_ID=44831

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#53214

PCB Support in Pick and Place | 16 January, 2008

Hi,

That's great, and I did not know this was possible, as I did not see that thread when I searched the archives.

Do you know of any companies that take your board outline and will design a palette to hold it through the printing, smt loading and reflow process? I would be nice to have a company make the fixtures for us, as they would be experienced at doing that, and know more than we do about what works.

We use Pentagon EMS for wave palettes and they are great, because they do a really good job without needing much input from us. SMT palettes would be good if we found someone similar.

Grant

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#53217

PCB Support in Pick and Place | 16 January, 2008

Give your current supplier a shot. They probably can do a good job for you. Most wave solder pallet suppliers make SMT pallets just to stay in business.

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#53222

PCB Support in Pick and Place | 16 January, 2008

We build all our own stuff now but in the past we have bought some SMT pallets through Midwest Circuit Products (216) 662-1548. They were fast and did a nice job.

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