Dear Stephen Thomas,

I agree with Ed Valentine. For reflow soldered boards, arbitrary angle placement
is not a problem.

I had to do a couple of boards that had to fit in a small circular area, and
both of the assembly houses that I talked to didn't have any problem
auto-placing components at arbitrary angles and then reflow soldering. My
understanding was that their machines were capable of placing on 1 degree
increments. (I think that surface tension pulls chip resistors into the correct
position even if they're placed with tens of degrees of error).

I don't know enough to comment on wave soldering.

All the people at the assembly houses I've visited have been very friendly.
They've been very helpful answering my silly little questions.

Ed Valentine <[log in to unmask]> on 2001-02-07 09:21:42 AM responded:
...
>Virtually all placement machines that I am aware of are able to place your
>R's and C's at a 20 degree angle. Assuming the assembly house is using
>reflow soldering, then the only areas of significant concern are stencil
>printing of the solder paste, solder paste inspection (if it is automated),
>and board inspection after assembly.
>
>If your assembly house is using wave soldering for chip components, than
>that is an entirely different issue, and the chip components would be much
>more difficult and expensive to solder. Additionally, the layout of the
>other components on the board would have a major impact.
>
>My suggestion is that whomever the project leader is needs to contact your
>assembly house so they can review your proposed layout.
...
>Ed Valentine
...
>Website: http://www.ems-consulting.com

>From: "Thomas, Stephen" <[log in to unmask]>
>To: <[log in to unmask]>
>Sent: Wednesday, February 07, 2001 6:55 AM
>Subject: [DC] SMD passives placement angle.
...
> As I can't easily talk to my assembly house, can anyone help with the
> following questions please.
>
> I have a design on which it would be desirable to place a array of passive
> components (0603 Rs and Cs) at a 20 degree angle to the horizontal. The
> questions are will this cause problems on the assembly machine ? or are
all
> SMD assembly machines capable of all angle placement these days ? If all
> angle placement is common place what is the most common angular increment.
>
> Thanks for your help.
>
> Steve
...
> Harston                         http://www.generics.co.uk

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