PCB Support
- Magnetic Support Pillars;
- Dedicated Tooling Plate;
- Grid-Lok;
- Smart Pin Placemnet.
The magnetic support pillars are positioned on the manual tooling plate by theoperator. These pillars can be positioned anywhere under the board to provide board support.
Two types of support pillar are provided:
- Standard flat-top pillars (19mm) for supporting boards which are not populated on the underside.
- Pin-top pillars (4mm) for supporting boards which are populated on the underside. The pins are positioned so that they fit between the components on the underside of the board.
Dedicated tooling solutions are designed for optimal substrate support and the best quality print. Because any movement or incorrect positioning of the substrate during processing can result in defects, ASM employs proven design concepts and solid manufacturing methods to safeguard against these issues. An additional benefit: the side support of the squeegee, that will improve not only the lifetime of the stencil significantly, but also the print quality.
From support for standard PCBs to flexible boards and ultrafine-pitch board geometries to singulated products, ASM offers a variety of dedicated tooling solutions. In addition to ASM‘s DEK printers, dedicated tooling is compatible with most commercialized screen printing platforms, placement machines, inspection equipment and test systems.
Grid-Lok is a fully automated tooling facility that conforms to any given board profile, fully supporting the underside of a populated board and stencil.
Grid-Lok tooling array consists of 6 tooling modules with pin up/down control, and each module contains 44 pins in two rows. The FormFlex array is held magnetically to the manual tooling plate with the front unit being dowel located.
Grid-Lok height is 81mm standard tooling height, with a maximum component under board clearance of 15mm.
With the board loaded and raised to print height, all the Grid-Lok pins are extended using hydraulic fluid pressure until they meet the underside of the board, stencil or component. Once all the pins are in contact, the fluid supply to the pins is cut-off, automatically locking the pins in position. Variations in the
board layout can be accommodated as the force necessary to vary the height of a single pin is small enough not to damage a component.
The Smart Pin Support provides for 30 tooling pins of two different sizes, a quantity of 15 x 4mm support pins and 15 x 12mm pins are provided with the DEK and Siplace option. This allows for extra flexibility in positioning tooling pins as generally it can be assumed that the more board support placed, the better the substrate will be supported during printing.
Programming of tooling pin positions can be achieved in various ways depending on the user’s factory environment and their integration into ASM line control software (Siplace Pro).
- For customers fully integrated pin positions can be programmed offline with ASM Printer
- Programming or SiplacePro and then downloaded to the printer or to the pick & place via the line control software
- For customers choosing other manufacturers equipment programming of the tooling positions can be performed directly on the DEK TQ printer within the DEK Printer Station software
