Getting your design ready for manufacture

We sometimes get asked how to prepare a design for manufacture on a pick and place machine. There are things to be aware of that are not needed for your prototype, including fiducials, which are marks on the board that help the machine’s vision system place the components accurately. Also the way that components are provided makes a lot of difference to how long it takes to set up the run.

An excellent introduction to design for manufacture is provided by Dave Jones. We strongly recommend watching it before sending your design to be made. Having said that, we can handle 0402 sized components, but are happy to use other sizes if required.

Author: Sandra Bogerd

Music: composer, singer-songwriter, recording artist, conductor. Language: author (A. L. Uitdenbogerd) of the Gnomeville comic book series for absolute beginners in French. Work: Director of R&D and assistant manufacturing engineer for Agile Electronics; RMIT associate with computer science research interests in music, language, and usability. Business: co-director of Ad Hoc Software Pty Ltd and Agile Electronics. View all posts by Sandra Bogerd