Super Talent Factory Tour in San Jose, CA, USA

Putting the Components

Next the components are added to the PCB in a process called pick-and-place. This is a two-stage. First, a machine install small components like capacitors on the memory modules. Then the panel goes to another machine were the memory chips are installed. In Figure 4 you see a complete manufacturing line. The big closed machine on the right-hand side is the oven, while the machines on the left-hand side are the SMT insertion machines (pick-and-place).

Figure 4: One SMT manufacturing line.

In Figure 5, you can see the second SMT insertion machine on the line. A robotic arm gets memory chips from the chip tray (black, at the back) and places on the PCBs that come through a conveyor (no PCB was inside this machine when we took this picture).

Figure 5: Inside the second SMT machine on the line.

Figure 6: A panel entering one of the SMT insertion machines.