Component Drop Rate

[48X24X48X]

Hi guys,

I had my first batch factory assembled boards in the last 2 weeks.

I'm wondering what kinda rate is normal for components being drop during the pick and place process.

I find it rather annoying whenever the components is in a full reel, it drops a lot like 100-200 pieces.
But, whenever I marginally gives extra, it drop very little.

Dave, in the 1st round of uCurrent boards assembly by machine, do you drop a lot of components?

I just want to get a feel on how much of wastage to expect in the next round and can be done to reduce this.

[TommyGunn]

I know this is a bit late, but if you are still looking for an answer... It really depends on the type of part and how many are used per run.

100-200 pieces dropped would only be reasonable for small (0805 or less) cheap components on an previously used reel. New reels have extra empty tape on them to facilitate the installation of the tape into the tape feeder. If you have a reel with small expensive components it can sometimes be worked around by using some special tape and precise work



In my experience spillage from the machine dropping parts is around 0.1% on the high side.

[mikeselectricstuff]

Hi guys,

I had my first batch factory assembled boards in the last 2 weeks.

I'm wondering what kinda rate is normal for components being drop during the pick and place process.

I find it rather annoying whenever the components is in a full reel, it drops a lot like 100-200 pieces.
But, whenever I marginally gives extra, it drop very little.

That's because if there are a lot of spares, the assembler will take more time to minimise losses - e.g. better tuning of vision etc.,  and if there are few, they may have hand placed some previously dropped/vision-rejected parts.
There will sometimes be some 'problem' parts that are more prone to issues - e.g. inductors, which often have nonuniform solder on the bottom that can cause vision rejects. 
All the assembler cares about is getting the job out the door - using more of your free-issued parts is not his problem.