System Overview

 

SMT Caddy™ is a manual pick & place system for surface mount electronic components. It is packed with convenience features to maximize prototyping and small run throughput, while minimizing operator strain and occurrence of defects. Some of these key features are discussed here:

The system requires a solder bumped board (solder paste to have been applied to the PCB prior to SMT component placement). Customarily, the paste is stencil printed; dispensed solder bumps is also an option, though very tedious and often impractical. Once components have been placed, the PCB assembly requires ‘reflow’ in an appropriate oven to complete the fabrication cycle. Stencil printing hardware, or, a reflow oven is not supplied with the basic system. These tasks, however, are easily and economically accomplished via readily available products for the low volume and prototyping enthusiasts, and, via industrial solution providers for the small production run professionals, requiring higher volumes.

SMT Caddy can accommodate PCB panels of up to 320 x 180 mm (~ 12" x 7”).