PCB or printed circuit boards are one of the most electronic devices. It is made with copper lines, fiberglass, and other metal parts and it is covered with green chips in lines. The PCB assembly is held insulated with a solder mask and held with epoxy.

Before this process of PCB assembly, a few steps of preparation happen. It helps PCB manufacturers to examine the functionality of PCB design by following PCB prototype which also includes a DMF (Design for manufacturability) check. In short, these preparatory steps help to identify probable problems before beginning the assembly process.

Steps for assembling PCB components:

• Solder paste tracing:

The first PCB assembly step includes applying a solder paste to the board. Such a process is like a screen-printing technique by placing a stainless-steel stencil over a printed circuit board. It allows the assembler to use solder paste only to those parts of the would-be printed circuit board. Solder paste is a greyish substance containing tiny metal balls known as solder. The welding paste mixes a flux with solder which melts solder and link to a surface.

• Pick and place:

The device starts this process of pick and place by picking up a board of PCB through a vacuum grip. Then it moves to pick and place the station. After orienting printed circuit board at the station, it starts to apply surface mount technology to the surface of PCB. Such components are kept on the top of welding paste in preprogrammed places.

• Reflow welding:

After placing the welding paste and components of surface mount, it is required to keep those without any misplacement. It means that welding paste requires solidifying, following components to the board through this welding reflow process.

• Quality control and inspection:

Various ways of inspection can check any misalignment or errors. Here are some common inspection methods:

• Manual checks
• Automatic optical inspection
• X-ray inspection

The fortune of malfunctioning board relies on the standard of a printed circuit board company. Such inspection includes the quality checking of PCB connections. Such checking can happen regularly after this process of reflow to point out some probable problems. That is why it is important to do the quality control and inspection so that it can help both the designer and manufacturer in saving materials, labor and time.

• Insertion of through-hole component:

Components of printed circuit board use such holes to pass a signal from one side to the other side of a printed circuit board.

There are two types of welding for insertion of through-hole component and these are:

• Manual welding: Such a process of soldering is a straightforward process
• Wave welding: Such a process is an automated version of manual welding

• Final test and functional inspection:

Testing and functional is the last but most important step in the process of PCB assembly. Any unacceptable fluctuation of voltage, signal or current output is detected under this step of checking.

So, these are some steps to assemble different parts of a printed circuit board by following the PCB prototype.

ChinaPCBOne Technology LTD. is author of this article on pcb. Find more information about PCB assembly.

Tereso sobo