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2.1 Machine Architectures

Chipshooter

Machine vsarchitecture flexible,defines gantrythe vscharacter turret,of a surface-mount line, setting the balance between speed, flexibility, and whenreliability. toWhether split/load-level—so thea line hitsleans TAKTon without drama.

Pick-and-place machines come in two main personalities: chipshooters, built for raw speedthroughput, onflexible tinymounters passives,for range, or a hybrid of both, the choice dictates how well it keeps pace with takt time. Motion systems, line topologies, and flexibleworkload mounters,balancing designedall tofold handleinto everythingthis architecture, determining whether production flows smoothly or stalls in firefighting. The right combination turns placement from BGAsa tobottleneck odd-formsinto witha highstable accuracy.backbone Manyof high-volume lines pair them—chips first, complex parts second—while high-mix shops often run two flexibles in tandem or parallel to cut changeovers. Motion style also matters: gantry heads excel at accuracy and part variety, while turrets dominate chip speed but have part-height limits. How you arrange them—single stream, tandem split, role-split, or dual-lane—shapes throughput, with balancing based on placement times keeping takt time steady. Permanent passive banks, consistent vision teaching, and small in-line buffers protect uptime, while avoiding unnecessary flips or feeder swaps keeps the flow calm. When the machine mix matches the board mix and the workload is leveled, the line stops firefighting and simply runs to plan.

manufacturing.

2.1.1 Two kinds of pick-and-place (and why you’d mix them)

Type

What it’s built to do

Strengths

Trade-offs

Best use

Chipshooter

Blazing through small passives (01005–0603), some small ICs

Very high parts/hour; tiny-part vision; low cost per placement

Narrower part range; changeovers hurt if you swap feeders often

High-volume boards with lots of repeat passives

Flexible mounter

“Anything you throw at it” (BGAs/QFNs/QFPs, odd-form, tall parts)

Broad component range; accurate; easier NPI

Lower headline speed on tiny chips

Mixed-tech boards; NPI and variant builds

House rule: if volume justifies it, run a chipshooter → flexible pair. If you’re high-mix/low-volume, two flexibles in parallel beat one of each—fewer changeovers and simpler kitting. (We’ll tune programs in 8.2 and feeders/splicing in 8.3.)



2.1.2 Heads & motion: gantry vs turret

Architecture

How it moves

Why lines love it

Where it bites

Gantry (moving head on X-Y; multiple nozzles)

Head sweeps over a stationary board; cameras under/over

Flexible parts range, great accuracy on BGAs/QFNs; modular (add heads/gantries)

Peak CPH lower than a pure turret; throughput depends on path planning

Turret (rotary wheel with many nozzles)

Wheel spins parts past vision → drops at speed

Insane chip speed; shines on dense passive fields

Limited tall/odd-form; setup sensitivity; not the tool for large/heavy parts

Modern lines blur the line (hybrid heads, dual-gantry modules), but the mindset still helps you design the flow: feed tiny parts where rate matters, feed complex parts where range and accuracy matter.



2.1.3 Line topologies (and when each wins)

Topology

Sketch

When to pick it

Notes

Single stream: Printer → PnP1 → Reflow

One mounter

Small boards, light BOMs, pilot/NPI

Simple, cheap; limited peak rate

Tandem split: Printer → PnP A + PnP B → Reflow

Two mounters in series

Most common volume setup

Balance parts so cycle times match (±10%)

Role split: Chipshooter → Flexible

Fast chips first

Boards dominated by chips + a few ICs

Keep high-hit chip feeders permanent

Parallel lanes / dual-lane

Two lanes through same machine

Short boards, tight TAKT

Great for pack-and-stack, but needs disciplined feeder mirroring

Top/Bottom mirror

Two lines per side

Dense double-sided builds

Sync changeovers; share feeder banks where possible

Conveyors/buffers and handshakes live in 8.4; keep them smooth so mounters never starve.



2.1.4 When to split or load-level (the 10-minute math)

  1. Measure each machine’s placement time per board from logs (exclude board travel).
  2. Find the bottleneck—the slowest station sets line TAKT.
  3. Move part families (usually passives) from the slow machine to the fast one until their times are within ±10%.
  4. If you can’t balance by parts, consider duplicate programs in parallel (two similar mounters doing half the placements each).
  5. Re-run a First Article after any big split to confirm offsets/rotations stayed sane (that’s 8.5).

Think like line balancing: shift work off the constraint and protect it with feeder discipline. (Part VI digs deeper into bottlenecks and sustained throughput.)



2.1.5 Practical rules that keep uptime high

  • Permanent banks: park high-runner passives on fixed feeder banks; variants “hot-swap” the odd parts. (Feeder care/splicing in 8.3.)
  • Teach for success: lock vision teaching & rotation sanity during program creation so either machine can place the part without edits. (8.2)
  • Don’t ping-pong boards: minimize unnecessary flips/returns; if you must split by side, keep symmetrical feeder layouts so changeovers feel the same on both lines.
  • Buffers beat stars: small in-line buffers before the bottleneck absorb micro-stops and keep TAKT steady. (8.4)



2.1.6 Quick chooser (print this)

  • Mostly chips, few ICs → Chipshooter + Flexible in series.
  • High-mix, many changeovers → Two Flexibles (parallel/tandem), permanent passive banks.
  • Short boards, aggressive TAKT → Dual-lane with mirrored feeders.
  • Fragile BGAs, many QFNs → Bias toward gantry heads for accuracy; keep chip load reasonable there.



Bottom

Well-matched line:machines, pickdisciplined theload machinebalancing, mixand thatfeeder fitsstrategies yourensure part family (rate vs range), then balance work so no stationuptime is the hero. Use permanent feeder banks, clean programs,protected and simpletakt buffersis tomet keepwithout thesurprises. constraintBy fed.aligning Doarchitecture that,with andproduct mix, the line hums—quietly,runs predictably, with higher throughput and onfewer time. interventions.

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