Are You a Special Needs Customer?

摘要

Surface mount technology isn't new, so why do companies continue to think they need "special," expensive, custom machines? Whether it's odd-shaped parts or traceability, more "special" issues are addressed with advancements in, or mild modifications to, standard pick-and-place machines. A decade or two ago, many of these needs were special. When pick-and-place was relatively new, it was geared toward placing parts specifically designed for surface mount. Now everyone is looking at parts and wondering if more parts can be placed by pick-and-place machines to improve productivity. Even though many commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) machines are capable of placing those parts with little or no customization, many believe that special jobs call for fully custom — and high-cost — machines. People assume that lower costs COTS machines are designed for specific functions and have limited flexibility to place non-standard parts. But this may not,be true. Just because the functionality of COTS machines wasn't available in the past, doesn't mean you can't get it now.