LitePlacer pick and place machine

LitePlacer pick and place introduction
Juha Kuusama
Bob designs little circuit boards for robotic hobbyists. He purchased a LitePlacer pick and place machine. It comes in a kit and Andy is putting it together for him. He's having a grand time.

Assembling an electronic circuit board using surface mount components entails placing the components in the right position on the board. They are held in place with a dab of soldering flux. Once all the parts are in place, the board is baked in an oven which causes the solder to melt and connect the leads on the part with the traces on the board. I don't know where the solder comes from. I suspect it must already be on the board.

It is possible to place small surface mount electronic components by hand, but it is extremely tedious. Since you have already made a CAD file to layout the board, you can use the same file (techno-hand waving) to tell this machine where to place the parts.