China Topscom have made full use of robots in pcb manufacturing and fabrication,Topscom provide high difficulty density,pcb boards ,printed circuit boards design  layout, prototype,quick turn,mass manufacturing fabrication etc.
 
With the industrial transfer and upgrading, the implementation of the new labor contract law, the rising cost of urban living brought about by the transformation of economic structure, as well as the difficulty and mobility of workforce management and other factors, PCB manufacturers are experiencing more and more serious challenges of labor shortage and rising labor costs, as well as the impact on production planning, product quality and profitability. At the same time, with the improvement of robot performance and the decline of price, replacing the traditional production mode of "automation equipment + manual operation" with "automation equipment + industrial robot operation" will become the trend of transformation and development of PCB industry.
 
I. types and characteristics of industrial robots.
 
Industrial robot is a kind of mechatronics automatic mechanical equipment and system with multi-function and multi-degree of freedom, which can complete some operation tasks in the manufacturing process through repeated programming and automatic control. Combined with the manufacturing host or production line, it can form a single or multi-machine automation system to realize a variety of production operations such as handling, welding, sorting, assembly and spraying without human participation.
 
Since the first generation of robots came out in the United States in the early 1960s, the development and application of industrial robots have developed rapidly, and they have been increasingly widely used in production, and have become an important highly automated equipment in modern manufacturing industry.
 
The industrial robot is mainly composed of two parts: the body (including mechanical torso, motor, reducer) and electronic control (including drive and control system). Its function is to use the end actuator to grab objects or tools by hand instead of manually to accomplish different tasks. At present, there are three kinds of mainstream industrial robots, including: SCARA (four-axis parallel joint robot, DELTA (parallel robot) and six-axis multi-joint robot (including multi-joint robot with more than six axes and derived dual-arm robot).
 
The most remarkable characteristics of industrial robots are summarized as follows:
 
1. Programmable. The further development of production automation is flexible automation. Industrial robot can be reprogrammed according to the changing needs of its tasks and environment, so it can play a good role in the flexible manufacturing process of small batch and multi-variety with balanced and high efficiency, and is an important part of flexible manufacturing system (FMS).
 
2. Personification. The mechanical structure of industrial robot is similar to that of human walking, waist rotation, big arm, forearm, wrist, claw and so on, and there is a computer in control. In addition, intelligent industrial robots have many "biosensors" similar to human beings, such as skin contact sensors, force sensors, load sensors, vision sensors, sound sensors, language functions and so on. The sensor improves the adaptability of the industrial robot to the surrounding environment.
 
3. Versatility. In addition to specially designed industrial robots, general industrial robots have good versatility when performing different tasks. For example, the replacement of industrial robot hand end manipulators (claws, tools, etc.) can perform different tasks.
 
2． the application case of industrial robot in PCB industry.
 
In the early days, industrial robots were mainly used in the automobile manufacturing industry, completing welding, assembly, handling, spraying and other work in the process of automobile production, but these links do not require high precision and speed of the robot. However, the situation of PCB industry is relatively complex. The application of robot in PCB industry is mainly reflected in the functions of loading and unloading, flipping, sorting, positioning and testing of each process, instead of manual cooperation with the operation of PCB board processing equipment and testing equipment. Because of the diversity and complexity of PCB board, there are single-layer plate, double-layer plate, multi-layer board, flexible plate, soft-hard composite plate, non-hole plate and porous plate, which lead to more requirements for front-end actuator, positioning accuracy and working tempo, so there are higher requirements for robot technology and integration technology in the application of industrial robot. After nearly two years of exploration and practice in the industry, we strive to help customers solve problems, meet customer needs, and accumulate experience in the application of the industry. At present, we have mature solutions for many processes in the PCB industry, such as AOI, exposure machine, target drilling machine (OPE, XZ), silver paste hole filling, text inkjet, browning pre-stack, finished product loading, OSP, finished product cleaning, DOME film reverse coating, LCD assembly and so on.
 
The following focuses on three representative application cases of robots:
 
1. Six-axis multi-joint robot is used in AOI inspection process.
 
Traditional AOI scanning machines rely on manual release, flip and take-off, one person looks after two machines, doing repeated monotonous movements every day, and the newly made circuit board will emit a pungent smell to bring certain harm to the human body, the infrared light emitted by the AOI scanning machine is also an invisible killer. We use a six-axis multi-joint robot to replace workers in charge of two AOI boards. Each shift can complete the collection and release of more than 700 PCB hard boards, with an overall efficiency of 1 / min (including AOI machine scanning time). If the loading and unloading transport line matched with the receiving and unloading machine can be further connected to the AGV for fixed line transfer, the fully automated production of the upper and lower processes can be realized.
 
2. Scara robot is used in circuit board coil inspection process.
 
At present, the complete set of multilayer plate coil short circuit detection equipment on the market is still very few, most of the detection equipment rely on manual, large aperture PCB board is manually put the board on the detection equipment and then turn on the equipment detection, small aperture PCB board needs to manually hold the equipment (probe) to test each coil. We can use the SCARA robot to complete the loading, unloading and alignment of the testing equipment, and realize the inspection of all the coils of the board with large aperture at one time; for the board with small aperture, we use the SCARA equipment to fix the probe at the execution end, through visual positioning, and use the probe to detect each coil, our equipment can also effectively avoid missed detection because of the small or large aperture of the coil during manual operation. Compared with manual operation, it can significantly improve the efficiency of detection and avoid quality problems caused by missed detection.
 
3. DELTA robot is used in the packing process of finished products of small circuit boards.
 
The existing FPC plates are picked up manually and put into the suction tray, because the FPC is soft and thin, so the efficiency will be greatly reduced. Delta800 plus a set of visual system can pick out the qualified ones from the messy FPC heap and put them into the suction plate according to the requirements, the effect is not inferior to manual work. His speed can reach 60 tablets / min, can completely replace the manual to sort and load the plate.
 
Third, the advantages of industrial robots instead of manpower in PCB industry.
 
Like the automobile industry and other manufacturing industries, industrial robots in the PCB industry instead of labor brings many advantages to enterprises.
 
1. Reduce employment, speed up the pace of work, and improve work efficiency. The robot can achieve high-speed repetitive operation, which can be much higher than the manual work beat, which leads to a substantial improvement in work efficiency and a reduction in labor costs and management costs.
 
2. Improve the operation accuracy and product quality. The robot can use programming and vision system to achieve accurate positioning and repetitive accuracy, and effectively improve the quality of the product.
 
3. Avoid the potential threat of the working environment to the health and safety of workers, and save the investment in environmental safety.
 
(4) to reduce the decline of efficiency and quality and the accident rate caused by the influence of repetitive and boring processes on the state of workers;
 
5. Optimize the work flow and reduce the work space.
 
6. Effectively reduce the rate of material consumption.
 
7. It can work continuously for 24 hours and work in a dark light environment.
 
8. It can make the manufacturing process flexible. In the future, there will be more and more small batch orders in the PCB industry. The use of industrial robots can greatly improve the flexibility of production and achieve rapid delivery of orders.
 
9. The promotion of brand image and reputation. The application of industrial robot further improves the automation level of PCB manufacturers, promotes the progress of product quality, production efficiency, cost control and response ability, and improves the overall competitiveness of manufacturers in the industry.
 
IV. Application Prospect of Industrial Robot in PCB Industry.
 
At present, the application of industrial robot in PCB industry is still in its infancy, and there are still many problems to be solved. Many operating lines in PCB industry are non-standard products. In the process of robot application, it is limited by the existing working space and the capacity of the original equipment. In the face of the influence of different PCB board material factors, we should not only consider the application of various sensors to improve the intelligence of the robot, but also consider to train a group of employees who can operate and maintain the robot for manufacturers.
 
In the future, the application of industrial robots in PCB industry will show the following trends:
 
1. From single-station or single-line applications to multi-line applications. It is difficult for existing PCB enterprises to fully introduce robots to realize automatic production, and they need to invest a lot of money to carry out transformation, but they can carry out step-by-step transformation of single station and single line with conditions, and then gradually expand the scope of application after obvious results have been achieved.
 
2. From the application of simple robot to the application of combining with AGV and other intelligent equipment. Most of the material transfer between the existing production lines is manual operation, which can be distributed and implemented by the combination of robot and AGV to realize the orderly transfer of materials.
 
3. The existing factory is mainly based on local application, and the construction of the new plant will be planned as a whole, which will be directly introduced into the application of robot and AGV.
 
4. Through the combination of industrial robot and Internet of things, the manufacturing process will be more intelligent and flexible.