Bob Black

Bob Black has submitted responses to the following questions.

Pick and Place Machine Calibration
A placement machine calibration should be run every six months. ...

Recommended Fiducial Shape
The IPC SMEMA design standard for fiducial marks is a solid filled circle. Ge the standard from IPC. ...

0201 Pick & Place Nozzle Plugging
The Tozai Nozzle Cleaner, sold by Juki in the Americas, can remove all solder paste residue, even from 0201 and ...

Pick Performance for SMT Placement Machines
The machine specs say 99.99% for pick reliability and place reliability. The machines can exceed that number, however. We recently ...

Pick and Place Placement Rate
The best way would be to take your highest volume board and have it assembled by the different machines you ...

Lifted leads on QFP
This is likely a co-planarity problem with the parts. Some parts have lead displacements before you place them. Many fine ...

APEX Trade Show Feedback
Tha show was great. Back to 2008 levels. ...

Lead Free Percentage
In the US I would estimate 50 to 60%. ...

Hand Soldering Alternative
Selective Solder may work! We would be happy to evaluate this at Juki. ...

Pick and Place System to Insert Radial Lead Device
Yes, we at Juki do quite a bit of insertion of radial parts. We have a variety of nozzles, including ...

Requirements for 01-005 assembly
From the placement side, you need a machine with high accuracy, an accurate feeder design, and a precision 01005 nozzle. ...

Selective Solder Considerations
We have several machines with multiple nozzles on board, where several different size miniwaves can be used to allow complete ...

Laser alignment vs. vision centering for Pick & Place
I guess as the President of Juki, I'm the right guy to answer this question. The reasons we use Laser ...

Flux Deposition
It might be flux, but much more likely you are not reaching reflow temperature due to the mass involved. Run ...

Stencil Aperture Ratio
Follow the IPC Design Guidelines. ...

Control Electronic Static Discharge
Contact the manufacturer of the equipment for this information ...

RFID Technology for Pick and Place feeders
At Juki we use RFID technology for setup verification and traceability. Each feeder communicates with the machine wirelessly over RFID. ...

Cost per placement for SMT line
Not yet. But the SMEMA Council of IPC is working on such a standard. ...

Should we buy new low cost assembly equipment
The answer is maybe. Check carefully the quality of construction of the equipment. Then, as the most important, check the ...

Hand soldering skills
Bob Doetzer and Circuit Technology who does IPC Training and certification. ...

Is "Cost per placement" key factor
Cost per placement is one factor, but total cost of ownership may be a better benchmark to use. Make sure ...

Remove and replace a 240 pin connector
I suggest you contact AirVac Engineering on this. ...

Why should we consider "smart feeders"?
Intelligent Feeders assure that no set up errors can happen. Also, many of the systems today can do "paperless traceability", ...

RoHS compliance of assembly machine transferred to European facility
Absolutely. You can not ship equipment containing lead into the EU. ...

RoHS compliance for SMT and Through-hole equipment
Yes they do. Any equipment delivered in the EU after July must be constucted of all no-lead components. The only ...

RoHS existing products vs. new products
To my knowledge, all products not specifically given and exemption by the EU must be lead free. ...

Advise and suggestions for assembly using 01005 capacitors.
01005's are much more difficult. Most current p&p systems do not handle these parts. One of our customers who is ...

Lead-free solder pastes drop-in replacements?
You shouldn't see much difference in the printing and placing. Your oven, however, may be a different matter. Many of ...