Planning of Component Placement/Insertion Sequence and Feeder Setup in PCB Assembly Using Genetic Algorithm

Abstract

A new application of the genetic algorithm approach is introduced to solve printed circuit board assembly planning problems. The developed genetic algorithm finds the sequence of component placement/insertion and the arrangement of feeders simultaneously, for achieving the shortest assembly time, for three main types of assembly machines. The algorithm uses links (parents) to represent possible solutions and it applies genetic operators to generate new links (offspring) in an iterative procedure to obtain nearly optimal solutions. Examples are provided to illustrate solutions generated by the algorithm.

The optimisation of the single surface mount device placement machine in printed circuit board assembly: a survey

“…However, due to a technology change, the SMD placement machine characterised for the TSP (refer to Table 1) is not classified in Ayob and Kendall (2002a). This might be an old machine and as far as we concerned, none of the work focuses on this machine type except Leu et al (1993). The planning problem of the first machine (refer to Table 1) was treated as a TSP since the issue is to find a sequence of placement head(s) in visiting all PCB point locations such that the travelling time is minimised, regardless of the pickup operations.…”

“…Many researchers have attempted to enhance the feeder setup including Leipa¨la¨and Nevalainen (1989), Crama et al (1990), Grotzinger (1992), Ji, Leu and Wong (1992), Foulds and Hamacher (1993), Leu et al (1993), Sadiq, Landers and Don Taylor (1993), DeSouza and Lijun (1994), Ji, Wong, Loh and Lee (1994), Moyer and Gupta (1996a, b), Sohn and Park (1996), Yeo et al (1996), Dikos et al (1997) and Sun et al (2005). Most researchers highlight that the crucial moves, which affect the optimisation, are the feeder carrier movements (Grotzinger 1992;Ahmadi and Mamer 1999;Kumar and Luo 2003), which is the case for moveable feeder carriers.…”

“…This strategy might also help to reduce nozzle change operations. Leu et al (1993) associated the planning problem (particularly the component pick-and-place sequencing problem) with the characteristics of various SMD placement machines. They identified three planning problems as shown in Table 1.…”

“…Indeed, Magyar et al (1999) argued that until now, PCB machine vendors and software companies have not been capable of solving even a single machine optimisation problem efficiently. Once all available components have been placed (some may be missing due to component run outs) the PCB is unloaded from the machine before undergoing a soldering process to adhere components to the PCB (known as solder reflow) (Leu, Wong and Ji 1993).…”

A triple objective function with a Chebychev dynamic pick-and-place point specification approach to optimise the surface mount placement machine

“…The implementation process shows that the approximation of the problem by a sequence of TSPs was adequate to produce significant increases in throughput. Some works related to feeder setup and/or component placement sequencing can be found in [10][11][12][13].…”