While the professionals may make electronic PCB assembly look easy, it can be anything but. And, there are a wealth of tools and machines required to perform the tasks at hand. Anyone delving into electronics manufacturing, or even design for manufacture, should be familiar with the basic tools, which include: • Soldering irons, stations and machines • Torque screwdrivers • Cutting and forming tools • And those things required for repair and rework
Ultimately, the placement of components on PCBs, whether they will be attached via through-hole or solder, requires many tools. These can run the gamut from thermometers to measure the temperature of a solder iron, wrist straps and smoke absorbers for ESD protection, hot air guns for SMD repair, static level meters and static eliminators, parallel removers that remove parallel ICs, glue stick melters, soldering tip polishers and vacuum pickup tools. This list is far from exhaustive.
Assembly also requires the most basic tools including electric and pneumatic torque controlled screwdrivers. Liquid dispensers are needed to distribute glue epoxy, solder paste, and more.
Tools also break down between hand tool assemblies, bench mount, modules and a variety of actual machines. These machines perform such tasks as radial and axial component cutting, component forming, bending and kinking, and electronic component counters.
The Molex 622020213 insertion module from the T9999 application tooling series, is a manual insertion module for use with the VHDM-HSD™ backplane header,
74670 right angle series and VHDM® 6-row, 74030 right-angle series.
There are a wide range of Glenair assembly tools including 600-006, 600-079 and 600-102 circular backshell assembly wrenches and replacement insert pads. These tools come in a variety of materials including aluminum and stainless steel, standard coupling and anti-decoupling devices, as well as in several sizes.
TE Connectivity’s 58579-1 bench-mount power units tools include a pistol-grip hand tool system for insulation displacement connectors (IDCs). The system fits pistol-grip and bench-mount power units and terminates unstrapped wire. It also aligns and holds connectors in place for each termination and most heads automatically advance connectors after each termination.
TE Connectivity’s crimper, the commercial-grade 58546-2 PRO crimper hand tool assembly, is designed for field installation, repair, maintenance or prototyping in industrial, commercial or institutional applications. The products crimped with this tool will meet crimp height requirements for hand tools in the 114 Application Specification. For other requirements check the parameters of the spec.
While printed circuit board assembly does not guarantee 100 percent zero-defect production, the use of a wide variety of assembly tools assist to not only affix, remove and rework components, but also to create a more safe environment for the manufacture and assembly of devices.