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what is the max print speed? thanks for your help

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#52244

what is the max print speed? thanks for your help | 31 October, 2007

I want to know the max print speed.

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#52251

what is the max print speed? thanks for your help | 1 November, 2007

That is solderpaste dependent. Please check your solderpaste datasheet for print speed range.

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#52252

what is the max print speed? thanks for your help | 1 November, 2007

Lke Pete C said it's specified by the manufacturer of the paste, but it's also board specific.

We print a lot faster on boards with nothing smaller than 50 mil pitch than we would on 16.

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#52271

what is the max print speed? thanks for your help | 1 November, 2007

The solder that we used is kester EM918 and Multicore LS328. Our printer machine is DEK-photon, this machine has supply below 300mm/s. the datasheet solderpaste of speed range is 30 to 150mm/s. when we produce the keyboard of the moble phone, this board is very simple, only has sevral chips. the print machine does not match other equipment. so I want to konw how to reduce the print cycle time, and improve production efficiency. thanks for your help..

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#52272

what is the max print speed? thanks for your help | 1 November, 2007

Dear Steve Thomas, you mean your print speed has reached 400 mm/s? i want to know what solderpaste you use, whether not contain lead or leadfree? thank you .

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#52277

what is the max print speed? thanks for your help | 2 November, 2007

400mm/s??? I want to know what solder you are using AND what machine?

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#52278

what is the max print speed? thanks for your help | 2 November, 2007

Why look at buying expensive equipement when you can have your board house multi-up a panel of boards for you. You just saved at least $150,000 American, didn't have to re-evaluate any solder paste, and even opened your process window on your oven. Congrats, it's bonus time!

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#52312

what is the max print speed? thanks for your help | 5 November, 2007

Heck no, I mean we print relatively slower on complex boards, as in 1 inch/sec (25.4mm/sec), and maybe 2 inches/sec. (51mm/sec) on less complex boards.

SMT is not a bottleneck in our plant and printing never the bottleneck in SMT, so I see no need to print any faster.

If you haven't panelized your boards like Hussman referred to, do it.

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#52319

what is the max print speed? thanks for your help | 5 November, 2007

There are several things that can be done to increase throughput on you screen printer, including the panelization of your bords as Steve & Hussman has pointed out. However that's of limited use if you have plenty of stock that is not panelized. That being said, I would like to point out that I have NEVER seen a printer that can print at 400mm/second. The FASTEST I have seen is 6 inches per second, or 152.4mm/sec. So let's take that off the plate for now, along with panelization. There are new solder paste formulations out there today which are designed for faster printing, and faster seperation speed from the stencil after the print is completed. Believe it or not, you can save a couple of seconds per board by having a fast seperation speed after print with good volume transfer of material to the PCB. Look at some of the newer ALPHA formulations. They support this type of printing scenario. (as do other manufacturers pastes, you just need to know what to look for!) How optimized is your printing process? you can do some work on the frequency the machine looks a the fids, and how often are you wiping under the stencil? If the stencil and board design are right and your machine setup is right, you should be able to go 10 to 20 boards before you need to wipe under the stencil. You should be able to print at 2 to 4 inches per second even with 12 mil pitch QFP's if your paste and setup are right and your paste supports it. Take a look around and even give your current supplier "new" paste(s) a try.

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#52558

what is the max print speed? thanks for your help | 17 November, 2007

On a Dek Horizon 03 the tact time for one panel measuring 400mm print stroke took me 16 seconds at a speed of 55mm/sec. I see no reason for reducing further tact time since loading and unloading PCBs from Pick & Place machines is relatively close.

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#52559

what is the max print speed? thanks for your help | 17 November, 2007

I agree with previous postings regarding print speed: Solder paste type/versus fine pitch.

Question: Is this a double sided pcb with fairly easy component packages on both sides?

In such case, consider make the panel like this: Every second pcb in the panel to be a primary and the next one a secondary side. Make the panel uniform, meaning that when you flip the panel, it is exactly the same board layout. If this is possible, you will only need one oven profile, one stencil, one machine program and one feeder setup in your SMT line. So when you switching to the second side of the board, you will have a very little production change over time. This is common in the mob-phone production industry.

Panelization will gain production throughput (component placements/hour), since less conveyor movement (board handling) and fiducial marks checking, unless fine pitch, on each "small "pcb. This is only true when we are speaking of some volume production. You still need to de-panelize the pcbs:s.

A Tip: If your concern is of how fast the stencil printer will go with your typical solder paste, without compromising the paste print in a high degree, whether or not knowing the solder paste maximum print speed; do some test of it. Go for let say 20% more print speed than you think you need on sample pcb:s, record the result (inspection under microscope) and decrease the print speed until you find the upper safe limit of the print speed of that particular board and paste. Solder paste manufacturer often set the maximum print speed on the safe side. Remember that it will be different for another product with fine pitch or P.I.P connectors! Also considering using only 2 fiducial/board/panel as far a part as possible, optimum one on each corner. 2 fiducial marks are enough for X-Y-Theta correction. The third fiducial is mainly to compensate for board stretch in the pick & place machines and you can not do much about that in the stencil printer anyway. Sincerly, Mika Ps. Sorry for my poor english. Ds.

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