Choosing the right solution to optimise production and reduce assembly costs.
It wasn’t so long ago that PCB production was predominantly manual assembly of through-hole components followed by wave soldering and then manual test and inspection. In the mid-nineties I was tasked with introducing surface mount technology (SMT) into fire detection products and worked closely with production to optimise the design and manufacturing processes. Over time we were able to significantly reduce the use of the manual assembly and the wave oven, saving production costs and time consuming maintenance.
