I have a screen printer, SMT assembly (pick and place) machine and a reflow oven. We have never calibrated or verified the screen printer as there are no instructions for doing so in the manual. Our SMT machine can be self-verified in two ways. Every time the machine turns on, it "homes" itself and then goes from home to a verifiable position on the other side of the machine and checks the encoder counts on the X & Y. It also checks Z axis using its built in laser measurement system. The laser measurement system can be verified against a block that came with the machine. Our reflow oven uses top and bottom heaters with PID controllers in each zone. Any out of tolerance condition would rapidly become obvious unless both controllers in one zone failed at the same time. Therefore, we have only verified that the temperature readings are correct using a traceable temperature meter.
We do perform the preventive maintenance as required by the manual for each piece of equipment and this is listed in our ISO preventive maintenance procedure. However, the SMT equipment is not listed in our calibration pool and I don't have a traceable calibration record for these items. Remember that there is a "where necessary to ensure valid results" in Section 7.6. If your SMT process is stable (i.e. you screen solder in the right place, put parts in the right places, and solder the parts properly) without extensive calibration and verification, then you don't need to add unnecessary burden.
7.6 "The organization shall determine the monitoring and measurement to be undertaken and the monitoring and measuring devices needed to provide evidence of conformity of product to determined requirements." Our customers do not require that we screen Q amount of solder at R coordinates, place part X at location Y and reflow solder at temperature Z. They require the finished assembly to meet their requirements. Consider.
My evidence of conformity is the 99.9% first pass yield of my surface mount assemblies at final test.
We do perform the preventive maintenance as required by the manual for each piece of equipment and this is listed in our ISO preventive maintenance procedure. However, the SMT equipment is not listed in our calibration pool and I don't have a traceable calibration record for these items. Remember that there is a "where necessary to ensure valid results" in Section 7.6. If your SMT process is stable (i.e. you screen solder in the right place, put parts in the right places, and solder the parts properly) without extensive calibration and verification, then you don't need to add unnecessary burden.
7.6 "The organization shall determine the monitoring and measurement to be undertaken and the monitoring and measuring devices needed to provide evidence of conformity of product to determined requirements." Our customers do not require that we screen Q amount of solder at R coordinates, place part X at location Y and reflow solder at temperature Z. They require the finished assembly to meet their requirements. Consider.
My evidence of conformity is the 99.9% first pass yield of my surface mount assemblies at final test.
Last edited: