An algorithmic approach to the improvement of efficiency for surface mounting machines

With rapid development of the surface mounting technology (SMT), continual efforts have been made to make the surface mounting machines efficient as well as reliable. The authors propose an algorithmic approach to the improvement of efficiency for surface mounting machines. For minimizing the set-up time, a CAD data conversion algorithm, which makes the data for the pick-and-place sequences from the CADSTAR output files, is proposed. Also, for optimizing the feeder arrangement and the traveling path of heads in the surface mounting machine, SCM 130 model, effective feeder arrangement algorithms are proposed. To evaluate their performance, the proposed algorithms are tested on the assembly tasks of PCBs manufactured through simulations. As a result, it is shown that the proposed algorithm reduces the time required to perform the assembly sequences by maximum 9 percent when the task time is compared with the time required to perform the assembly sequences made by an expert