Production departments
The production cycle runs through seven in-house departments, which each board passes through from receipt of the printed circuit board to packaging.
Surface-mount assembly
The SMT department is the heart of our production. The line performs automated placement of surface-mount components using the placement data supplied with the design.
The cycle has three stages: solder paste printing on the pads through a stencil made for the board, automatic placement of the components, and reflow in an oven with a thermal profile set for the type of assembly.
- Technology
- Surface mount (SMD)
- Paste printing
- Dedicated stencil for each board
- Reflow
- Oven with a defined thermal profile
- Volumes
- From prototypes to recurring production
Axial components — leads running along the axis of the body: resistors, diodes, inductors. They are cut and bent to the board pitch and inserted lying flat.
Radial components — parallel leads on the same side of the body: electrolytic capacitors, LEDs, filters. They are inserted upright on the board.
Through-hole assembly
In PTH (Pin Through Hole) technology the component leads pass through the printed circuit board and are soldered on the opposite side. It is a mature technology, older than surface mounting, which we continue to cover with a dedicated department.
Through-hole meets two different needs. The first is technical: many components — transformers, relays, power connectors, large electrolytic capacitors, terminal blocks — are not available in surface-mount versions or do not offer the same mechanical strength. The second is economic: on low-density boards or in small batches, PTH assembly often reduces the overall production cost compared with an all-SMD solution.
In the department the components are prepared by cutting and bending the leads to the board pitch, then inserted into the holes according to the bill of materials supplied. The boards then move on to the soldering department.
- Technology
- Through-hole (PTH / THT)
- Preparation
- Lead cutting and bending
- Typical components
- Connectors, transformers, relays, electrolytics
- Equipment
- Dedicated machines for axial and radial components
- Benefits
- Mechanical strength, power handling, reparability
Automated soldering of through-hole components
After insertion, through-hole components are soldered by machine. This is the stage that turns a mechanical assembly into a reliable electrical connection and ensures consistent results across every unit in the batch.
The soldering machines work both on all-PTH boards and on mixed boards, where the surface-mount components have already been placed and reflowed in the SMT department.
- Process
- Machine soldering with controlled settings
- Board types
- PTH and mixed SMT + PTH
- Benefit
- Repeatability across the whole production batch
- Alternative
- Hand soldering for special operations
Manual assembly
The manual department is staffed by trained operators and handles non-standard components, small batches and every operation that cannot be automated or for which automation is not cost-effective.
The work includes inserting special components, making wiring and cable harnesses, fitting heat sinks, brackets and mechanical parts, and assembling the finished product when the order goes beyond the board itself.
- Manual insertion
- Special and non-standard components
- Wiring
- Cable harnesses, crimping, internal connections
- Assembly
- Mechanical and finished-product assembly
- Reference
- Drawings and bills of materials supplied by the customer
Visual inspection of every board
Quality control is carried out by trained staff who visually inspect the boards at the end of production. The inspection covers solder joint quality, presence and orientation of components, correspondence with the bill of materials and the absence of optically detectable defects.
The work calls for product-specific experience: inspectors know the recurring weak points of each board and can spot an anomaly before it becomes a non-conformity at the customer's site.
- Method
- Visual inspection by an operator
- Coverage
- Every board produced
- What is checked
- Solder joints, polarity, presence and position
- Standard
- IPC-A-610 acceptability criteria
Functional testing of the assembled product
In the testing area the boards are powered up and verified according to the procedure agreed with the customer in the quotation. No unit is delivered without passing the required functional test.
Test equipment varies with the product. If the customer has its own test benches or procedures, we work to those specifications; otherwise the test method is defined together.
- Type
- Functional testing of the board
- Procedure
- Agreed with the customer
- Equipment
- The customer's own or defined together
- Outcome
- Non-conforming units set aside and reported
Packaging and shipment preparation
Boards are packed in anti-static material, protected against impact and prepared as agreed: individually, in groups, in trays or already kitted for the customer's assembly line.
The same area houses the warehouse for incoming materials and finished products awaiting shipment, with every goods-in and goods-out movement recorded.
- Protection
- Anti-static material (ESD)
- Packaging
- To the customer's specification
- Warehouse
- Incoming materials and finished products
- Shipping
- Within the lead time agreed for the order
Feasibility assessment
Send us the technical documentation and we will check whether your product is compatible with our processes.