Consigned Material

If you've arrived at this page you have either designed a board and placed an order with us, or are considering doing so and would like to consign some or all of your own material. In order to make sure your build goes smoothly, we need to make sure that the components you'll be consigning to us are useable in our manufacturing process and that we can easily identify them when they arrive. If you don't want to hear the gritty details and just need to know our specific requirements, feel free to jump ahead to the "Supplying Extra Parts" or "Material Identification" sections. But if you're curious as to why we have these requirements, then read on.

If you are looking for more details, kindly visit KF-SMT.

"If you've failed to plan, then you've planned to fail."

First of all, if you've ever purchased parts for a low quantity prototype and hand soldered everything together then you've probably never had to really worry about the issues associated with accounting for attrition. When you're manufacturing with high speed machinery this is something essential to be taken into account to ensure that you get your boards on time.

At Worthington Assembly we use high speed equipment to populate all of the surface mount parts. There are 2 reason that we will need more than the exact quantity of parts. 

1. Loading feeders will waste a small quantity of parts

2. Machines will reject parts occasionally for a variety of reasons and potentially be lost forever

Loading Feeders

When you first load an SMT feeder you need a small amount of "leader tape" for the machine to grab so that it can finally advance the whole reel of parts. This holds true whether it's a full reel or just a small amount of cut tape. The following video shows how we load one of our feeders. In order for the machine to advance the tape, it needs to gain access to the sprocket holes of the tape. The machine needs at least 3 empty sprocket holes to begin this process.

When the tape is loaded into the feeder, the cover tape is not actually peeled completely off. It is only folded over. The glue on the sprocket side of the carrier tape holds the cover tape in place while the glue on the opposite side of the tape is peeled off by the plow of the feeder. You can see in the video the cover tape peeling over and a few seconds in you'll hear a "click" as the tape snaps into position.

Because these feeders need 3 exposed sprocket holes, that means the very first time you load a feeder, no matter how long or how short the amount of tape, you will always waste a few parts. Generally it's 3 to 6 parts, depending on the pitch of components. If it's a larger part it may only be 2 parts, but regardless, these parts will need to be "lost" for all intents and purposes. Granted, we don't actually throw these away, we put them in the bag that's associated with the part number, but regardless, if we had to use these parts again a significant amount of time would be required to reload the part into the feeder so that the pick and place machine can finish the job. And time is money as they say. Trust us, you don't want to pay an experienced and highly professional operator to manually reload parts into the pocket of a piece of tape. It's much less expensive to just order extra parts.

2. Machine Rejects

Another reason that we need extra parts, is because these pick and place machines are super fast and have lots of little holes and pockets for little tiny surface mount parts to get lost in. It's not unusual for a machine to reject a part and then toss it into a rejection bin which we can pull out and sort through to find any parts that were rejected that we still need. However, sometimes because of an enormous number of variables (which are beyond the scope of this article) the machine may lose the part completely in its vast array of pockets for stuff to get lost. In these circumstances, it's necessary to make sure we have extra parts, should any one of these parts get lost. In general, the cost of an individual part is far less than the cost of the whole assembly (there are exceptions of course but we're going to speak in generalities here). So when we order parts we make sure to order extra. 

Here's a picture of one of our pick and place machines (affectionately named "Skywalker"). You can see a whole lot of shapes and pockets where things can get lost. If you look at one in person then you'll see clearly just how easy it can be to lose parts in here.

Supplying Extra Parts
(Dealing With Attrition)

Surface Mount

All surface mount material must be shipped either in continuous tape, trays, or tubes. We cannot accept multiple pieces of cut tape for the same part number. It would require us reloading that part into a feeder over and over and we do not quote our services based on having to do this kind of work. We expect to be able to load the part once and let the machine run. Loose material will only be accepted if we are notified first and there's a reasonable explanation for the material being loose (we're reasonable people).

Discrete Passives (cheap caps, resistors, inductors, etc.)

Package Size - 50% extra - 200 pieces minimum - at least 100 extra
, Package Size - 50% extra - 100 pieces minimum - at least 50 extra
, Package Size - 10% extra - 25 pieces minimum - at least 20 extra
and Larger Package Size: 5% extra - 10 pieces minimum - at least 5 extra

Inexpensive Active Devices (small diodes, LED's, regulators, transistors, crystals, etc.)

0.6mm or smaller - 20% extra - 20 pieces minimum - at least 15 extra
0.6mm - 1mm - 10% extra - 15 pieces minimum - at least 10 extra
1.0mm - 2mm - 5% extra - 5 pieces minimum - at least 5 extra
2mm or larger - 5% extra - 5 pieces minimum - at least 5 extra

Moderately Expensive Devices (regulators, drivers, crystals, inductors, connectors, etc.)

0.6mm or smaller - 10% extra - 10 pieces minimum - at least 5 extra
0.6mm - 1mm - 5% extra - 10 pieces minimum - at least 5 extra
1.0mm - 2mm - 3% extra - 5 pieces minimum - at least 4 extra
2mm or larger - 2% extra - 3 pieces minimum - at least 3 extra

Contact us to discuss your requirements of Smt Feeder Parts. Our experienced sales team can help you identify the options that best suit your needs.

See also:
How Does Stainless Steel Casting Work?
Is Smt Customized Service the Future of Innovation?

Expensive Devices (MCU, memory, large inductors, sensors, wireless modules, etc.)

Most of these expensive parts should be handled on a case by case basis. Suffice it to say, we'd generally like at least 1 extra but understand that there may be times where exact count is necessary. We will still need extra if the components are very tiny though. The smaller the component, the more trouble we will have getting the pick and place machine to reliably do its job.

Price Breaks
Here's a quick tip. Look for price breaks when purchasing material. Although you may only need a small volume of components, it is often cheaper (especially for caps and resistors) to buy more than you need, saving both money and providing us parts to account for wastag

Thru-Hole

Inexpensive Devices (resistors, caps, LED's, etc.) - 5% extra - 10 pieces minimum - at least 5 extra
Moderately Expensive Devices (connectors, regulators, etc.) - 2% extra - 5 piece minimum - at least 2 extra
Expensive Devices - exact counts are ok, but please notify us ahead of time

Hardware

Inexpensive (less than $0.25) - 10% extra - at least 5 extra
Moderately Expensive ($0.26 - $1.00) - 2% extra - at least 2 extra
Expensive ($1.00 or more) - 1% extra - at least 1 extra

A Note About Insufficient Attrition

If we do not receive enough extra material, we will still build your assemblies to the best of our abilities but we will complete the assemblies short of whatever material we run out of. In other words, you will receive assemblies with missing parts. We will communicate all of this to you when this happens of course.

Material Identification

When you send us your materials, it is an absolute requirement that the materials and the shipment itself is clearly labeled with all of the necessary information. If it is not, then we will not know who the material belongs to and you may only hear from us once we're concerned that your material never arrived.

Identifying Individual Part Numbers

Each part number should be in its own separate package, be it a reel, a bag, a tray, or a tube. Each package of components should be clearly marked with the specific manufacturer's part number. This should match your BOM exactly. For the sake of our sanity, please do not write a partial part number on the package. Write the full and complete part number as we are expecting to identify it. If you have a cross (a part number that's equivalent to what we need but not the exact same manufacturer's part number) please communicate this to us ahead of time.

Distributors will often put a manufacturer's part number on their label. In this case, so long as that label is clear and legible, their label will work great. Here is an example from Digikey. These work really well.

Identifying The Package

When you put all of your material into a box to ship to us, please put your company name (or your personal name if you are not a company) along with your Quote Number on the Attention line of the address.

Worthington Assembly Inc.
Attn: Customer Name - Quote Number
14 Industrial Drive East
South Deerfield, MA
United States

If you placed an order through CircuitHub then your address should read like this. You can find this information in the Consignments tab of your Order Page.

re: EChrisDenney/f19
Worthington Assembly Inc.
14 Industrial Drive East
South Deerfield, MA
United States

Notify Us

When you finally do consign your kit to us, your contact here at WAi with the tracking number so that we may pass this along to our receiving department so that they can be on the look out and ensure that your project's kit is received and kitted to the floor in a timely manner. If you placed your order on CircuitHub, create a New Issue and notify us that way.

Return or Stock Material

Sometimes customers like us to stock their consigned material for them so that it can be used in a future project. We have an excellent MRP system where we keep track of all of our material, both internal stock and customer stock. So you can be confident that if you send us material, we will not lose it. But if you'd like to have any of it back, that's fine too. Just communicate that to us ahead of time so that we can clearly identify what material is to be sent back when we label all of your parts during our receiving process.

If you have any questions, please feel free to us at or give us a call at (413) 397-.

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

Are you interested in learning more about Juki Replacement Parts? Contact us today to secure an expert consultation!

ali_asadzadeh

• Super Contributor
• Posts:
• Country:

10K$ SMT line suggestion

« on: August 10, , 09:30:58 am » Hi,
This is the First time I want to Buy SMT Equipment, so my budget is around 10K$-15K$, And I need the line for manufacturing my own projects which could be around 20-30 PCB design each year, around 5- units each PCB, the main requirements are as follow

1- Smallest part size is (But I prefer to go down till )
2- The biggest part is 35mX35mm BGA with 1mm ball pitch (Also Prefer to reserve room for bigger BGA parts)
3- My boards vary on complexity, Usually on the higher side of complexity with low number of production QTY,  But they usually range from 60 different components to 185 different parts, so the more feeders are welcome
4- All of my boards are double side loaded parts, So I Should be able to do Top and Bottom assembly.

So any suggestions and feedback is highly appreciated.
ASiDesigner, Stands for Application specific intelligent devices
I'm a Digital Expert from 8-bits to 64-bits

SMTech

• Frequent Contributor
• Posts: 922
• Country:

Re: 10K$ SMT line suggestion

« Reply #1 on: August 10, , 12:58:33 pm » Oh come on now. ADD A ZERO! Even then you won't buying new kit. Also read the 5k other threads with the same silly budget.

1MM BGA Pitch, not really a challenge, neither is double sided assembly although that can involve some workaround jigs or compromises if you choose the wrong very entry level equipment.

35mm will exclude most/all old "chipshooter" machines as they have narrow FOV's

isn't a big challenge in , needs decent feeders and a decent pick and place as well as good printing and PCB design, As far as I'm concerned means your printer is fully automatic.

185 different parts on 1 board is a lot and suggests poor design choices, cheap Chinese machines often top out at 48 or 60 8mm lanes. Even with more conventional equipment you would typically approach this many parts & feeders with two or more machines inline because 60 front 60 rear is a very "standard" arrangement.

You can load one set of feeders build, and then run again (shortest parts first) but that approach doesn't scale, fine for a batch 5 & completely unworkable for any volume at all (exactly how unworkable would depend exactly how much time and money you put in own extra feeders and kitting all 185 parts in advance)as well as how many partially built boards you want racked up in magazines drying out.

boards also means a real oven not some tiny benchtop thing, they're not small.

If you genuinely want and need an SMT line and your product make you money, buying the correct equipment will pay off, spend more than a shitty second hand car or outsource.

Just as an example, here is a good 2nd user machine that is designed for exactly the type of work you describe. It can't quite hold enough parts, but I happen to know you can do a live feeder cassette switch on every board while its building which would be fine for very occasional highly complex jobs but a nightmare in any other scenario. https://www.shawline.co.uk/product.php?id_product=42, the price is slightly inflated as it has a new head on it and is advertised by a broker. However it's still £23K GBP and doesn't come with feeders, hunting them down will cost as much again, at least, because they are forwards compatible with new models and are highly sought after, whoever is selling this machine clearly kept them for their new one and this is pretty normal. « Last Edit: August 10, , 01:10:18 pm by SMTech » The following users thanked this post: Mangozac

mikeselectricstuff

• Super Contributor
• Posts:
• Country:

Re: 10K$ SMT line suggestion

« Reply #2 on: August 10, , 02:02:24 pm » You need to take a hard look at exactly why you want to go in-house vs. subcontract, as well as explore as many subcontractors as you can. 
With such a wide range of volumes, it may well be that a mix of subcontract for high-volume and in-house for low-volume/urgent makes the most sense.
If you can sensibly sub out the hundreds to thousands jobs, you may well be able to get a perfectly good in-house setup to suit the lower volumes within your budget.

This is not just about equipment, but staffing/your time as well. Youtube channel:Taking wierd stuff apart. Very apart.
Mike's Electric Stuff: High voltage, vintage electronics etc.
Day Job: Mostly LEDs

ali_asadzadeh

• Super Contributor
• Posts:
• Country:

Re: 10K$ SMT line suggestion

« Reply #3 on: August 11, , 07:42:59 am » Quote

185 different parts on 1 board is a lot and suggests poor design choices, cheap Chinese machines often top out at 48 or 60 8mm lanes. Even with more conventional equipment you would typically approach this many parts & feeders with two or more machines inline because 60 front 60 rear is a very "standard" arrangement.

The Designs are simply just complex, since you did not see any let me show you some pictures!



The QTY is usually in the lower end, and units are not in hurry too, I thought maybe by adding a NeoDen YY1 Pick And Place Machine to the line, The price would not go that far, also I have checked a handfull of our last designs, they usually have under 120 different parts, so I think NeoDen YY1 can come in handy,

Quote

If you can sensibly sub out the hundreds to thousands jobs, you may well be able to get a perfectly good in-house setup to suit the lower volumes within your budget.

Thanks for the tip, I can do that, so do you suggest equipment with in my budget? ASiDesigner, Stands for Application specific intelligent devices
I'm a Digital Expert from 8-bits to 64-bits

Mangozac

• Frequent Contributor
• Posts: 487
• Country:

Re: 10K$ SMT line suggestion

« Reply #4 on: August 11, , 07:54:41 am » My SMT line cost several times more than $10k and I would hate to try to build boards like that

Too many component types, critical, fine pitch parts and BGAs and very long SMT connectors all in the one board would be a massive pain. Just saying "120 parts" doesn't mean a whole lot - many of those parts if supplied on tape will take up more than one feeder location.

The Neoden will be sloooow and you still have to pay someone to mind it while operating. I don't see the point for production.

mikeselectricstuff

• Super Contributor
• Posts:
• Country:

Re: 10K$ SMT line suggestion

« Reply #5 on: August 11, , 12:08:17 pm » For boards that complex in qny more than a few tens, I really think you should find a subcontractor with experience, in-house x-ray etc.
Think about how much time and wasted parts you could spend fault finding and optimising your process. Youtube channel:Taking wierd stuff apart. Very apart.
Mike's Electric Stuff: High voltage, vintage electronics etc.
Day Job: Mostly LEDs The following users thanked this post: 48X24X48X

nctnico

• Super Contributor
• Posts:
• Country:

Re: 10K$ SMT line suggestion

« Reply #6 on: August 11, , 12:12:17 pm »

For boards that complex in qny more than a few tens, I really think you should find a subcontractor with experience, in-house x-ray etc.
Think about how much time and wasted parts you could spend fault finding and optimising your process.

I agree. Doing in-house production doesn't make sense. Time is better spend on finding a subcontractor that is price competitive while doing a good job. There are small lies, big lies and then there is what is on the screen of your oscilloscope. The following users thanked this post: level6

Jackster

• Frequent Contributor
• Posts: 527
• Country:

Re: 10K$ SMT line suggestion

« Reply #7 on: August 11, , 08:35:42 pm » My line is 2-3x your budget (I got half of it 2nd hand at a stupidly low price) and even I would somewhat struggle with this.

Cheaper machines without feeders are fine for prototypes doing Rs and Cs but not anything more. They take forever to change reels over and set up.
That and you will want a half decent over and stencil printer, minimum.

Don't forget all the other costs. I am just fitting fume extraction to my unit and well now I don't have any money for a ski holiday 

Your time + running costs might also be more than you save farming this work out don't forget.
Sometimes you are better off spending $50 on paying someone to do it for you when you could make $100 for the same time doing higher-level work. We have all been there.

ali_asadzadeh

• Super Contributor
• Posts:
• Country:

Re: 10K$ SMT line suggestion

« Reply #8 on: August 12, , 07:56:40 am » Thanks guys for the tips and feedbacks, actually being able to manufacture the boards locally has very good advantages for us, Like the lead time, the lower price and the most important one, not compromising the designs!

Also since the production QTY is mostly on the lower side, I guess the machines would be 90% off in a year, so It can be used to manufacture other customer projects too and generate some side income, and I think it can pay itself back soon enough.

Though the challenging part is, the majority of the parts are smaller parts like Resistors, Capacitors, Inductors, LED's, Transistors, Oscillators and crystals and smaller IC's under 10mm x 10mm, so maybe having smaller machines like lumenpnp or NeoDen YY1  can come in handy.
Do we have very competitively priced Ovens that can do both side parts and you are aware of?

ASiDesigner, Stands for Application specific intelligent devices
I'm a Digital Expert from 8-bits to 64-bits

mikeselectricstuff

• Super Contributor
• Posts:
• Country:

Re: 10K$ SMT line suggestion

« Reply #9 on: August 12, , 08:10:24 am »

Also since the production QTY is mostly on the lower side, I guess the machines would be 90% off in a year, so It can be used to manufacture other customer projects too and generate some side income, and I think it can pay itself back soon enough.

Being a subcontract manufacturer for other people's jobs is a COMPLETELY different thing to doing your own. You will probably need to have a dedicated staff member for this.  Youtube channel:Taking wierd stuff apart. Very apart.
Mike's Electric Stuff: High voltage, vintage electronics etc.
Day Job: Mostly LEDs

SMTech

• Frequent Contributor
• Posts: 922
• Country:

Re: 10K$ SMT line suggestion

« Reply #10 on: August 12, , 11:36:28 am »

Thanks guys for the tips and feedbacks, actually being able to manufacture the boards locally has very good advantages for us, Like the lead time, the lower price and the most important one, not compromising the designs!

Also since the production QTY is mostly on the lower side, I guess the machines would be 90% off in a year, so It can be used to manufacture other customer projects too and generate some side income, and I think it can pay itself back soon enough.

Though the challenging part is, the majority of the parts are smaller parts like Resistors, Capacitors, Inductors, LED's, Transistors, Oscillators and crystals and smaller IC's under 10mm x 10mm, so maybe having smaller machines like lumenpnp or NeoDen YY1  can come in handy.
Do we have very competitively priced Ovens that can do both side parts and you are aware of?

I think perhaps you're not getting just how basic these cheap machines are and how very different they are from production machines. They are literally toys. If you were making tiny little controllers for hobbyists such as the many many Arduino derived little projects that people like to make where you have a BOM of maybe 30 lines and you run it now and again, sure it works, provided you accept you will sometimes spend a bit of time prodding stuff back into position that isn't placed accurately, fiddling with a feeder because its not working properly and other annoyances. In addition setting up a pick and place is not a fast process and its slower for low volume as you are very likely to not have all your parts in production packaging (trays, long tapes/reels, tubes), instead you'll have annoying little packets of parts that will need cover extension tape, a custom tray, careful handling labelling and storage so they don't get mixed up once they are out of their packets. This takes TIME, time is money and you're time and skills are needed design, testing & verifying those 20-30 complex designs a year.

I run the SMT of a small sub contractor, we do small batches of boards all the time, some of it really quite complex & expensive. I run equipment considerably better than what you are contemplating and I would decline to manufacture the board pictured if its an example of  one of your 185 lines BOMs and I would probably direct you elsewhere because my line is still missing several expensive pieces of equipment ideally needed to make it that our existing client base do not yet make necessary. Complex boards are expensive to make for all the reasons in the previous paragraph, the Neoden would be more help than just a pair of tweezers but not help enough, from your description even if it was just putting down all the little stuff, its too small and not accurate enough, it will drive you up the wall. The sad reality however is that if you need designs this complex and the associated technology they are simply not low volume friendly, and the most common workaround is to use modules like Pi compute module, Arduino Vidor etc to reduce your manufacturing complexity. (and a whole bunch of impedance matching, and complex design work those parts would need if implementing yourself)

Two sided assembly doesn't require much from an oven other than clearance, you just need to have a fixture of some kind that keeps the PCB suspended off the Mesh/Tray the PCB sits on. I used to use titanium clips traditionally used to strengthen/support a PCB during wave soldering, but these days I have a large Oven with a pin chain conveyor which is an option on most convection reflow ovens for production.

Of course it does depend what you can get over your border too.... The following users thanked this post: ali_asadzadeh, Mangozac

48X24X48X

• Frequent Contributor
• Posts: 527
• Country:

Re: 10K$ SMT line suggestion

« Reply #11 on: August 12, , 02:25:03 pm » $10K probably can get you a 2nd hand Dek stencil printer. That's about it.

ali_asadzadeh

• Super Contributor
• Posts:
• Country:

Re: 10K$ SMT line suggestion

« Reply #12 on: August 12, , 07:37:00 pm » Thanks SMTech for the tips,As you just said, we have lot's of complexities with complex boards, they make profit and I should find a way to solve these challenges, so they would not be that hard for the coming years, either I should wait to make more money or should I find a clever solution. ASiDesigner, Stands for Application specific intelligent devices
I'm a Digital Expert from 8-bits to 64-bits