Pocket-sized product needs 39m manufacturing line

Pioneer Technology is currently operating what is believed to be one of the longest manufacturing lines ever assembled.

Pioneer Technology is currently operating what is believed to be one of the longest manufacturing lines ever assembled.

Measuring a mammoth 39m in length, the line was designed and constructed in order to produce highly complex PCBs for mobile phone specialist Ericsson's latest range of high-tech models.

Set up with just a three-week leadtime, the line contains, among others, two high-speed chipshooters, a fine-pitch placement machine, an odd-form component placement machine and two AOI inspection machines.

"The need to build such an extensive line arose simply due to the extreme density of the components on the board", explains Phil Neal, Technical Supervisor.

Each double-sided board is small enough to fit inside a mobile phone casing, but is packed with a mixture of almost 500 micro BGAs, fine-pitch QFPs and 0402 components.

Neal continues: "It was vital to get the design, build and control spot on because of the tiny size and sheer quantity of the components: even AOI struggles with this density because of component shadow!".

Tightly controlled, the line runs around the clock and produces 10,000 complete phones per week.

Advances in mobile phone technology mean that, while the units are getting smaller and smaller, the functionality of the devices is becoming greater and greater.

The result is ever-increasing demands on manufacturers.

"At Pioneer Technology, we've become extremely adept at handling such complex designs", comments David Pierce, Sales Manager.

"With highly-skilled personnel throughout the plant and years of quality manufacturing experience behind us, our capabilities allow us to deal with whatever customers want to throw at us!".

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