PCB assembly

Electronic contract manufacturing or electronic manufacturing services are terms used for companies that manufacture printed circuit boards, and test and repair pcb's, these companies will often offer other services such as wiring assemblies also known as cable harnesses or cable assemblies, electro-mechanical assembly is also a important part of the electronics industry, often lots of smaller sub-assemblies are assembled that will later all come together in a final finished product


Having the ability for fine intricate work is essential for the printed circuit board assembly process, it is also neccessary to be methodical but to work quickly and efficiently, being a team player is also important. Other skills that you need include attention to detail as this is paramount for quality checks such as pre-production checks on components before they are assembled onto a printed circuit board (PCB), it is generally good practice to get what is known as a first off, this is when a quality check is done on the first printed circuit board (PCB) in a batch so any mistakes are picked up quickly, things an inspector would be looking out for at this stage in the printed circuit board (PCB) assembly process would be the values of resistors, diodes and capacitors inserted with the correct oriantation, intergrated circuits (IC) having pin 1 lined up with silk screen markings on the printed circuit board (PCB)


. After the printed circuit board (PCB) has been soldered more quality checks are carried out on the solder joints, bridging may occur this is when two solder joints join together and a short is created, to rectify this a printed circuit board (PCB) assembler would remove the solder from both joints with a solder sucker then hand solder the joints. Once the printed circuit board (PCB) is complete it is tested this can be done on automatic test equipment (ATE) by an electronic engineer