Testing an SMT Pick-and-Place Machine With Your Own Boards
Buyers should require a demonstration on their own printed circuit boards, not stock samples, and define acceptance criteria around placement accuracy, head count, and board thickness range before signing off.
Ask the supplier to run the demonstration on your own printed circuit boards, populated with your actual components, rather than on a stock sample board. This single decision exposes feeder setup, nozzle choice, and programming effort that a canned demo hides.
In the request for quotation, state the board thickness you will run and confirm it sits within the reference range of 0.2–3.5 mm. Ask how the 8 placement heads are allocated across your component mix and whether all heads are used in the demo. Treat the catalog positioning accuracy of ±0.01 mm as a reference value only; ask the supplier to measure placement results on your boards during the demonstration and to report the method used.
For acceptance testing, agree in advance which boards, components, and quantities will be run, and how placement quality will be judged. Ask whether the demo machine matches the configuration you would receive, including head count and feeder positions.
Before requesting a quote, confirm with the supplier that the demonstration uses your boards and components, that the quoted configuration matches the demo machine, and that acceptance criteria and measurement methods are documented in writing.